The Silver-Eyed Warrior, The End
by Santinos
Summary: In the world of Remnant, there was a family of silver-eyes that all other branch off of. They are the Rose family, and the strongest of them all, Vara Rose, Ruby's other uncle. He and all the others will have to go against the world if they are to save it. If all goes well, it will be alright, but if it doesn't, well. Read to find out. Rated T for violence, but it may change later.
1. The Shack in the Forest

The Shack in

The Forest

Ruby knocked on the door to the house in the woods.

"Come in. The door's unlocked." Ruby opened the door and walked in. She looked around and saw boxes and papers piled up against the walls on either side of the room. She noticed bookshelves trying to hide behind the clutter. On the other end of the room there were two hallways, one on each side with a window on the far end.

"Hello. Where are you?" She continued to look around.

"I'm in the kitchen, down the hallway to the right of the window." Ruby strolled down the hall until she entered a room that had a stove and oven in one corner, a TV, couch and a few chairs in another, a dining table in the middle and bookshelves lining almost all the walls. The books on the shelves filled them up and they all looked hand-made. Other than that, the floors were covered in stacks of boxes, used paper waiting to be bound and unused paper waiting to be written on.

There was some open space in between the massive piles of clutter, just enough to walk around, no clutter in front of the couch and chairs. There was also a nice ring around the dining table. In the corner of the room that was the kitchen, crouching in front of the oven, was a man of about the same build as Qrow but one to two feet taller. He also had black hair with red tips. He looked at Ruby and stood up.

"There you are, Ruby. It's been a long time since I've seen you. Sorry about the clutter, but I've got some cookies in the oven. I know you like them." He picked his way across the room to her.

"It's been a long time since I've seen you too, uncle Vara." She wrapped her arms around his chest and hugged him for several minutes. "I missed you Uncle."

* * *

It had happened several years ago, when Ruby and Yang had still been children. Team STRQ had been called off for a mission in the west. Summer, Tai, Raven and Qrow.

The mission had failed. There had been a traitor placed in the academy that was a part of the strongest team in Beacon history; team VLCRY. The only five-man team ever to come out of any school.

The people who made this team were, Vara Rose, elder brother to Summer, Laura Star, Cinder Fall, Roy Winchester, father of Cardin Winchester, and Yael Arc, father of Jaune Arc.

Cinder Fall had been placed into Beacon by Salem to destroy the remaining silver-eyes. Summer and her team were called to a town at the sea to combat a giant grimm. Back at Beacon, Vara and his team were called up north to keep a giant horde of grimm off an evacuation.

However, when they got there, Cinder disappeared. The grimm were coming in and they couldn't worry about where she had gone to. Unfortunately, Cinder had gone to team STRQ to kill Summer. This is what happened.

* * *

"See you when we get back brother." Summer said as she hugged Vara. They let go of each other and Summer knelt down in front of Ruby.

"We'll be back soon, okay?" The little girl nodded and jumped into her mother's arms. Summer hugged her back and picked her up. She set her down next to Yang.

"Take care of each other, you two." The group of nine people walked through the trees so they could catch a train into town. When they got to beacon they split up into their respective teams, STRQ and VLCRY. Summer went west and Vara went north. After about a day of flying, Vara and the others landed and got out of the airship.

What they saw was a burning town. There was grimm everywhere. The four of them ran into the village and killed grimm, took children out of the town and into the airship so they could get away. Somewhere along the flight, Cinder had disappeared. At this point they didn't notice she was gone because they were too busy dealing with the grimm to worry about her.

Vara was pushing the grimm back into the mountains. The other three of them were still trying to clear out the town. They got into the airship and they told the pilot to wait to take off until Vara got there.

He had noticed that Cinder wasn't anywhere nearby so he decided to search through the kingdom for her. He found out where she was.

She was all the way in the west where Summer was. Cinder was attacking them, but going for Summer the most. She would knock the other three back and attack his sister.

Cinder stabbed her and Vara absolutely lost it.

His eyes glowed silver and energy pulsated off of him. He fell to his knees and held his head in his hands trying to contain his rage, but it didn't work. All the grimm within a twenty mile radius of him were obliterated. The force of such a blast sent him off the ground and through the sky, all the way to his sister.

He landed with a concussive force that left a crater in the ground. Qrow and Tai grabbed Summer and drug her away from the battle that was about to start.

"Cinder. You tried to kill my family. Now, you die."

Cinder charged at him. She held her sword above her head for a downward slash. Vara threw himself to the side and as he was flying he knocked her feet out from underneath her.

She fell to the ground and Vara sped past her, blasting through several trees as he barely missed her. He came back for another attack. Cinder brought her blade up for a block. Vara whipped past her, smashing her sword to pieces and throwing her a few dozen feet through the air.

Cinder started to run away from him and he went after her.

"Brother. Stop." Summer yelled as loud as she could. Vara tumbled across the ground. He was on his hands and knees, with his head nearly touching the dirt. His eyes still glowed, but they were fading. He caught a glimpse of her and his eyes went out. He got to his feet immediately and ran over to her.

He kneeled down next to her and covered her wound with both his hands. He pushed down to try to stop the bleeding.

"You're going to be alright, Summer, you're going to be alright." His voice weakened as he said it. The bleeding wouldn't stop no matter how hard he tried.

Summer put her hand on his face. "Don't worry about me, Vara. I'm alright now that you're here. My wound is too bad to heal. Tell Ruby and Yang I love them."

"No, come on Summer. You can tell them yourself when we get back there."

"I wish I could, brother, but, I'm not going to be able to. I won't be able to see my two beautiful daughters grow up, not with these eyes anyway. Don't worry. I'll be watching you from the other side. Tai, Vara. Take care of them for me." And with that, she closed her eyes and exhaled her last breath.

Vara screamed, as loud as his lungs would allow. He had lost his sister, one of the few people who were alive that loved him. He held her close to him as he wept uncontrollably. He was upset that he had lost her, and angry at himself for not being there to protect her. There was one thing that he did know. He would not let this happen again. For his sister, he would protect her daughters, and give his very soul if it meant that they lived.

Him and Tai came back a few days later. They went to the cliff where Summer and Vara would look at the world. The two of them buried her there and made a gravestone for her that they could come to when they needed to talk to somebody. Yang was distraught, and Ruby? She was too young to understand what was happening, but old enough to remember her loving mother.

* * *

Ruby was sitting on Vara's couch. He had just told her what happened, because she had asked, and he wasn't going to keep anything from her if she wanted to know.

"Y-you were there when she died?" Ruby asked him. He held his head in his hands. He hadn't just told her what happened, he had relived it. He sat up, hearing the distress in her voice.

"How did you find out where Cinder was that day?" He didn't look her in the eyes. He looked over to the TV and turned it on without using the remote or his scroll.

"My semblance allows me to read and mildly control energy flow. I can find out anything that has happened and is happening in this world. Thats the reason for all this clutter. I've been reading the world like a book, writing down everything that I find out."

She took a cookie from the plate in front of her and took a bite out of it. These tasted a lot better than her dad's did, and his cookies were delicious.

"I know why you came here Ruby, and it wasn't just for a visit, though it was good to see you." He stood up. "Well, come on Ruby. Let's go."


	2. Ruby's Other Uncle

Ruby's

Other Uncle

Juane was leaning up against a tree with his arms crossed over his chest. He was obviously aggravated. It had been several hours since Ruby left.

"Come on Ruby. where are you?" He tapped his fingers on his arm rapidly.

"I'm sure she's fine. Ruby is a strong person, she'll be able to handle whatever comes her way." Ren told him.

"There she is." Nora yelled. Indeed, coming through the trees, was Ruby. Someone was following behind her as well. The man was carrying two longswords, a pole axe, and a pole hammer on his back. He was also carrying daggers and short swords on his waist and upper legs. They both stopped in front of them.

"Hello. My name is Vara Rose. I am pleased and honored to meet you all." He bowed at the waist to the group. Ren bowed back in respect to Ruby's uncle.

"It is very nice to meet you as well." Ren replied respectfully. "My name is Lie Ren."

"I'm Nora Valkyrie."

"And I'm Jaune Arc."

"I know who you are, Jaune. I used to work with your father, Yael. He was on my team, along with Cardin's father, Roy. They never really got along unless they were in a battle, and it seems that it has carried onto you two."

"What was your team name?" Ren asked him.

"VLCRY."

* * *

Ruby and Vara were walking through the forest. Ruby was about seven at the time. They were going to his place for a night or two. Ruby liked visiting him because of all the books he had all over the house. Yang didn't want to go, so she stayed home with her dad. Vara had snuck a bag of cookies for Ruby to munch on during the walk. She had already eaten half the bag.

This was far before the massive clutter. They got there near dark and Vara was carrying Ruby on his back. She was almost asleep when he set her down to open the door. He touched the doorknob and he sensed something was wrong. He closed his eyes and searched through the house. That would explain it, he thought to himself. Grimm had crawled into his house from somewhere underground. He searched the surrounding area and knew it was clear. He told Ruby to hide in the bushes.

She had no idea what was going on, so she went into one of the bushes while Vara went inside.

Ruby looked at the house for a long time.

Suddenly, there was a bright flash of silver light that pierced through everything. It was so intense that Ruby had to close her eyes, turn around and cover her face with her hands.

* * *

Ruby woke up with her ears ringing, but not badly. Vara was turning her over onto her back. He traced Ruby's face and head with his fingers, checking to see if she was alright. He was satisfied that she was fine, scooped her up in his arms and carried her inside.

Afterwards, when Vara told Tai and Qrow about the encounter, they were shocked that grimm had gotten into Vara's house. A few days later the three of them went into the woods to try to hunt down the rest of them.

They were in a cave when Vara sensed it. He turned toward the entrance.

"Qrow, you'd better get to Yang and Ruby quickly, they're in danger. About five miles south-west of here is a house filled with grimm. They're headed straight for it. You can get there the fastest so you'd better get going. We'll be right behind you."

They ran to the entrance and Qrow took to the skies.

When Qrow saw the two of them, Yang was pulling a wagon with Ruby sleeping inside. Grimm were coming out of the house and were about to rush them.

Qrow dove out of the sky.

* * *

They were all laying around a campfire. The sun had set a few hours ago. Vara was sitting in between Ren and Ruby. Ren was stuck next to Nora, with Jaune between her and Ruby. Vara was picking at a ukulele sized guitar and singing something to himself. Everyone but him was asleep. Qrow had taken a tree about a mile back.

They hadn't come across any grimm yet. _We have to thank Qrow for that when he decides to show up_, Vara thought as he continued singing lightly. He would have watch for another two hours, than it would be Ren's turn.

When he fell asleep that night, his mind showed him remnants of Ruby's life up until this point. He woke with a jolt, like a bolt of lightning was sent through his body. He noticed that it wasn't dawn yet. He heard someone crying somewhere off in the darkness. He got to his feet and walked over to where it was coming from. He found Ruby sitting behind a tree.

She must have been thinking about Penny. He laid a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, startled. As soon as she saw it was him, she put her head to her knees. He kneeled down and wrapped his arms around her. He picked her up and brought her back into the firelight.

He sat down with Ruby still in his arms. She cried into his coat for a long time. Vara sang to her throughout all of it. It calmed her down enough to speak, but Vara didn't want to push her. He wouldn't use his semblance to find out what else had happened, he wanted to wait until Ruby wanted to talk about.

Eventually, Ruby got back to sleep and Vara took over the watch.

Author's note: So, I believe that went well. If you have any feedback for me, please review or send me a message. Constructive criticism on character and story development. Also, check out my other three stories. Don't worry about long waiting periods between updates on any of my stories, I will complete them all. End author's note.


	3. TJATC part one The Past

Author's note: I own absolutely nothing. Please give constructive criticism on character and story development. Look for more by me. Please read and review all that you can. In the meantime, I have big plans for this. Also I am going to go into Vara's semblance and it's limitations. There will be a bit of them. End author's note.

Their Journey Across

The Continent

Part One

The Past

"We're headed for Shione village, right?" Vara asked Jaune. They were looking at the map that they had brought.

"Yeah, it should be a mile or so up the road. I remember when me and my family used to go there and camp out in the woods." They walked on for another hour. They came through the trees and saw a horrible sight.

Shione had been wiped out. It was still burning in some places, indicating that it had happened recently.

"Look for survivors." Ruby told the rest of them. They split off in different directions.

"Guys," Jaune yelled, "I found someone." The man he had found was a huntsman. He was laying against a broken wall, severely injured. They rushed up to him.

"What happened here," Ren asked. The man coughed and blood started to flow from his mouth.

"Bandits," he said, "they came out of nowhere, and with all the panic…"

"Grimm." Ruby finished. Vara knelt down in front of the injured man and put his right on his forehead. His hand started to glow with his aura flaring. Vara felt what the man had felt during the attack, an urge to protect, followed by fear, sadness and finally, defeat. He saw all this in a split second.

The other four were talking about how they would help this man.

"I can run ahead and look for help." Ruby suggested. Vara stood up and looked to his niece. They made eye contact and he shook his head. The man was gone.

"We should bury him." she said.

"No," Ren replied, "we need to go. It's not safe here." He walked away and stopped. He was looking at something on the ground. Nora strolled up behind him and looked to where he was. They looked at each other in understanding. It was a gigantic hoof print.

"He's right we need to get moving. The grimm could come back. The atmosphere is still thick with terror." Vara grabbed the man's body and threw it over his shoulder.

"We'll bury him when we get the chance." They walked out of the destroyed town and headed to the next village.

When night fell, they made camp and took turns on watch. Vara was the first, followed by Ren, Ruby, Nora, Jaune and Vara finished off the night. This is how they did it for several days.

They made their way to Higanbana. They went to the inn and stayed there for the night. Vara paid for the room and said he was going for a walk.

He decided to talk to Qrow in the tavern across the street. He was arguing with his sister, Raven Branwen, upstairs. He walked in and up the first flight of stairs. By the time he came to the top, Raven had used her semblance to go back to her camp.

He pulled out the chair across from Qrow and sat down.

"So, that didn't seem to go too well."

"Hey Vara. No, no it didn't. Raven is being, well, Raven. Have you found anything on Salem or Summer?"

"No, but, about that, there's been someone else following us. I'd say he's about two days behind us. Keep an eye out on the road and be careful. I'm going to head back over." He got up and started to walk away.

"Hey, Vara." He stopped. "Take care of yourself, and I hope you find her."

"I will, and I hope I do too." He continued walking.

* * *

"Summer! You can't go after her!"

"I have to. I have to do this so that Ruby doesn't have to. I've already made up my mind. You can't stop me, brother."

"If you're still going to go, no matter what I say, than I'll come with you."

"No. You have to stay here to take care of them if something happens to me."

"If that's how you feel, than take one of these." He took a silver orb out of his pocket and placed it in her hand. "That way I'll be able to find you wherever you go."

Summer grasped the orb and hugged her brother.

That was the last time he saw her. He'd been searching ever since.

What he had told Ruby a few weeks ago, back at the house, wasn't completely a lie. Summer didn't die then, but she was hurt. Cinder had betrayed them all for Salem, that much was the truth. Now she was back, and she was after Ruby.

He woke up as the door opened. He looked up and saw Ruby at the door. It was still the middle of the night. He was sitting up against the wall as he slept.

"What's wrong?" he asked her.

"I had a nightmare. Can I come in?"

"Of course." He stood up and sat down on the bed. "Come over here. I want to show you something." He patted the bed next to him. Ruby sat down next to him and leaned against his shoulder. Vara wrapped his arm around her and his hand started to glow silver.

Where his hand was, Ruby's shoulder started to glow red. _With my hand, I guide you through the history of this world with me. I bring you back to the most joyous moments of life and protect you through it all. _

What Ruby saw looked like a swirling river of aura. It was a bluish color and was parting to a bright light. It opened up to a moment that she barely remembered.

She was a small child. Her and Yang were running all over their bedroom. Summer was trying to get them to calm down so she could tell them a story. They finally got up onto the bed near the head, while Summer sat at the foot of it.

"Alright you two, are you ready for me to start?" They both nodded rapidly. "Once upon a time, there was a princess who was beautiful and kind. She lived in a castle in the middle of a great kingdom. She was always trying to help the people of her land. So, one night, she went out into a town on the edge of the kingdom to give her riches to the people, but what she didn't know, is that a horde of grimm were coming to attack the small town."

Ruby buried herself in the pillows behind Yang and popped her eyes out from the cover. Yang and Summer laughed at this a little bit. Yang hugged her sister under the pillows as well as she could.

"She was all by herself," their mother continued, "and then the grimm were upon her. Fortunately, she had her sword on her and she defeated the monsters. She went back home the next morning. She had saved the town and helped them bring their it back. The princess was known throughout the world as being the strongest warrior in history."

"But I thought that was Uncle Vara," Yang interrupted. Summer laughed a little at this.

"Yes, my brother is very strong and so was the princess, but she wasn't as strong as he is." Ruby crawled out from underneath the mountain of fluffy comfort.

"Do you think I can become as strong as him?" she asked. Summer picked up her silver-eyed daughter and ruffled her hair.

"Someday, you'll become as strong as he is. Maybe even stronger." Ruby got so excited it looked like her eyes were going to fall out of her head.

"Really!?" Her smile was so big, it nearly split her head in half.

_What your mother said was true, Ruby. Someday you'll be as strong as I am, and when you are, you will surpass me._

Summer stood and took Ruby over to her bed and laid her down. She kissed her daughters on the forehead and put them to bed.

She saw the swirling energy again. _I'm bringing you back to the story that your mom was telling you._ Suddenly, she was in a town just off the coast of where Atlas would be.

There was a woman standing in the square, wearing a veil. She heard a loud roar behind her and she turned around to see what it was.

It was a horde of gigantic grimm. Megoliaths, sabers, geists, beowolves, ursas, king taijitus and centipedes. All of them looked like they were at least a few hundred years old. Ruby was terrified by how many there were.

She turned back around to see the woman that she had seen before, drawing a sword from her back. It had an uncanny resemblance to one of her uncle's swords called Rennibraut. She drew the blade and flew forward with such speed that it was hardly believable.

She hit the first pack of beowolves like a battering ram. They went flying through the sky as they evaporated. The woman threw the sword that she was wielding a spear and it went clean through five ursas and into a megoliath.

She took a polehammer from her back and struck the pommel of the longsword like a lightning bolt. The shockwave went through the beast, evaporating it.

Ruby watched this happen. She watched for the next three hours. No matter how many were killed, more just kept coming. Ruby was getting worried as she was getting overwhelmed. She removed her veil and Ruby saw something she never expected.

This woman had Silver-eyes too. Her eyes shined like starlight. The same silver light that she remembered seeing as a small child coming from Uncle Vara's house, came from this woman as well.

The light pierced everything. When it stopped, the grimm were gone, and the woman stood there, alone.

"_Who is that?" Ruby asked her uncle. He appeared before her._

"_That," he said, "is our ancestor. She is the princess of the Trandifir kingdom. You and I are two of the few remaining members of this bloodline. The weapons that I possess belonged to her once. The two swords: Rennibraut and Feliat. The pollhammer: Concasor. The pollaxe: Sondaj. They all come from her. She's the one who forged them and each Rose has made their own modifications to them, but they stay the same."_

"_What did she do to the grimm?" Ruby asked of her uncle. He looked at her and smiled._

"_She shined them, as I call it. The silver-eyes are not only a rare trait, but it's what you can do with them that is impressive. Do remember that one time when I told you to wait outside my house until I came to get you?"_

"_Yeah, I've been meaning to ask you about it, and my mother." Vara looked away for a second._

"_Come on, it's sunrise, we've got to get going. I'll tell you on the way."_ Ruby woke up to find she was in her uncle's bedroom again. She yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Vara was getting up.

He grabbed his duo-shabbard and strapped it on. He put the swords back in and hung the other two weapons on their hooks. He put his satchel over his shoulder.

"What do you have in the pack?" Ruby asked of her uncle. He looked at her.

"Come over here and see." Ruby stood up and walked over to him. Her uncle opened his bag. It was split into four sections. One had a compacted gun in it. Another was full of medical supplies. The third had a handle that looked like an electromagnetic locking key attached to a two inch thick disk. The final was full of silvery glowing orbs.

"The gun is called Lunetist." He grabbed one of the orbs and showed it to her. "These are called Sferas."

"What are they?" Ruby wondered.

"They are made from my concentrated crystalline aura. It takes me two days to make one. I have to focus my aura into my fingertips and push it from my body into a ball. That makes it half the needed size. I use all my aura to make the first layer, and the next day after it's recharged, I do it again. Here," he put it in Ruby's hand, "keep this with you at all times. No matter where you are, I'll always be able to find you as long as you keep a hold of it."

Ruby took it with a smile. She hugged her uncle and walked to the door. "Come on, we should get going." Vara smiled at her. She left the room and he followed.

Author's note: That was a really long one. Sorry for the long wait, but I think it was worth it for this. If you guys have any ideas for anything, it doesn't even have to have anything to do with this, just message me. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, I know I did when I was writing it. See you next time. Bye. End author's note.


	4. TJATC part two The Battle Begins

Their Journey Across

The Continent

Part Two

The Battle Begins

They left the inn later that morning. They bought some food at the shop and went on their way. Vara checked around them, just to be safe.

_Damn it_, he was still following them. Judging by the malicious intent and the insanity, it was the scorpion. _He's catching up. We shouldn't have to deal with him for a few hours though._ Vara brought his aura in a little bit. Qrow was still close behind, _thank the gods._

He looked up to the sky and saw the moon through the trees. "I wonder," he mused.

"What is it?" Ruby piped up. He forgot she was right next to him.

"Oh nothing. Just thinking." _I wonder why I can't find her. I've been looking for so long…. He's getting closer. _"Come on. Let's pick up the pace." He lengthened his stride a bit and got ahead of the others. This forced them to speed up too.

Ruby ran up next to him.

"Uncle, back at the inn, you said that you would tell me about our eyes on our way to Haven."

"That's right," he replied. "What do you want to know about them?" Ruby flipped around so she was walking backwards.

"I want to know how that princess shined those grimm." Vara leaned his head back on his shoulders. He closed his eyes and thought back for a second, doing a quick search of all the information about the silver-eyes. After a few seconds he opened his eyes and looked at Ruby, seeing the interest in her face.

"The silver-eyes react to grimm. They are beacons of light in the darkness of this world. When they are near grimm, the eyes react to the want-in-murder that the grimm give off. The more you use them, the stronger they get and the easier it is to activate them. That's about all I know from my experience."

Nora ran ahead of them and jumped onto a stray fence post. "Look," she yelled. She was trying to see into a town that looked abandoned and destroyed. Ruby turned around and caught up to Nora.

"We need to look for survivors," the red and black haired girl stated. They raced into the town and looked around.

"I don't like this place," Vara stated to himself. He made a 360° turn. He saw the sign as everyone else was converging back on him.

"What is this place?" Ruby asked nobody in particular.

"Oniyuri. One of the greatest massacres in human history by the grimm." Vara punched the ground at his feet as hard as he could. His hand went half a foot into the stones, turning them into near sand.

"Weapons ready, someone's coming." He pulled his fist from the dust and drew Feliat from his back. _Qrow, trouble._

Tyrian careened out from behind a building and landed fifteen feet away from them. As soon as he touched down, he had to block an attack from Ruby's silver-eyed uncle. They got so close that their noses almost touched.

"I know why you're here, and you had better leave if you want your head intact," he said to the scorpion. The strange man kicked Vara in the back of his right knee to knock him off balance. As both feet came off the ground, Vara reached behind his back for Concasor and planted the end of the haft into the ground for support. He swung both feet and made contact with the new man's face, sending him into one of the buildings.

He used the momentum from the kick to land back on his feet, pulled the hammer from the ground and placed it on his back once again.

"If you think you can get me off balance, you're stupider than I first thought." He felt around for the scorpion. He wasn't in the building anymore, so… _There he is._

"Nora, behind you." She turned around and sure enough, the scorpion lept from a building and was going to bring the lightning-hammer wielder to the ground. Thankfully though, her reflexes were fast enough and she nailed him in the face, sending him back into the building he came flying out of.

"We're not looking for a fight," Jaune yelled. Tyrian jumped down from the new hole in the structure.

"Who are you?" Ren inquired of him.

"Who I am matters not to you, or you and, well, you do interest me. You already know me," he pointed to Vara, "no, the only person I matter to, is you." He pointed at Ruby.

"Me?" Tyrian started laughing maniacally. "Oh, oh you have no idea do you. Why my dear, I am here to whisk you away with me."

"What if she doesn't want to go with you?" Nora didn't really ask as she stepped in between Ruby and the scorpion.

"Well, then I'll take her," he stated. Jaune and Ren did the same as Nora.

"We're not going to let that happen." Tyrian breathed in and exhaled. "Good."

He disappeared and came up behind Jaune. Ren warned him and opened fire. Tyrian dodged in between the bullets as Jaune blocked them with his shield. Vara ripped through the air and Feliat took a few hairs off Tyrian's eyebrows.

Ruby loaded Crescent Rose with lightning rounds and fired just past his face. It hit Nora in the head and she was blown backwards from the force. Tyrian started laughing maniacally again at the supposed irony of the situation. You could almost hear the drum beats as realization dawned on the scorpion's face.

He turned around and saw Nora rise from dust at her feet. She flew forward and brought her hammer down, sending out a small shockwave of dust and wind.

The dust cleared and Tyrian had blocked Nora's hammer with a scorpion tail protruding from his lower back.

"Heheheheh, surprise." He jumped out of the hammer's path and landed on a raised platform, ditching the trench coat he had been wearing.

"He's, a faunus." Ren was surprised.

"What's this about? The White Fang? Roman Torchwick?" Ruby yelled at Tyrian.

"Plastic soldiers and pawns. My heart and soul belongs only to our goddess." He raised his hands in worship.

"Cinder." Ruby frowned at the mere thought of her. Tyrian dropped his arms.

"Heh, only in her wildest dreams!" He charged forward, straight at the silver-eyed girl. All he saw in his vision at this point was his target.

Something crashed into his head with tremendous force. Once again, he had been sent flying. He looked up to see a seven-by-three foot shield standing between him and Ruby.

It retracted to a spot on the forearm of its user, Vara Rose. It pulled back into a very densely packed prism that expanded forward as the metal pulled in.

(Recommended at this point, put on Skillet: not gonna die + intro.)

"I am not letting you get close." His face was expressionless, his voice even, but his eyes were filled with rage that burned so bright it was like staring at the sun in the face of a human being. The pupils in Vara's eyes were constricting and the silver irises were creeping into the whites.

He was enraged enough at the fact that Cinder had resurfaced, killed two of Ruby's friends and was now targeting her, but now that someone else was sent to collect her for the beldam, he was ready to unleash his wrath to the full extent.

He would not let Ruby be taken by Salem, the same person who had taken his sister, their parents, their parents before them, all the way back down the line to Princess Trandifir.

He had taken it too long, and he was going to fight back. He had a promise to keep to Summer, and once he made that, he intended to keep it, even if he was killed along the way, _Ruby and Yang will survive._

The look in his eyes made even Tyrian afraid of him.

Author's note: As soon as I finished writing this chapter, I thought to myself that I was being a total jackass for leaving it right there. The italicised wording is Vara's thoughts in this chapter, but it may be other characters' thoughts in previous or later chapters. Also, how I came up with the names for Vara's weapons and how I got his name, thank you google translate. I don't really care if the translations are accurate but they sound really cool. The name of his shield his Skjoldur (Skyoldoor I believe). I am writing this in between volumes seven and eight, and at this point it could be up in the air as to whether Summer Rose is dead or not. I am having Vara believe that she is alive and as to why he can't contact her if she is alive, same situation with Summer, I don't know. Two more things. One if you are wondering how Vara carries four weapons on the same side of his back (which he does) look on youtube for Shadiversity, sword on your back and axe on your back. Two, please give me any feedback through the reviews and any ideas through the private messaging aspect to this site. End author's note.


	5. TJATC part three The Battle Ends

Their Journey

Across the Continent

Part Three

The Battle Ends

Vara's irises were constricting around his pupils like a king taijitu around a small child. The whites of his eyes were almost gone too.

The dust on the ground at his feet started to move with a small wind. It moved in a circular pattern around his body at first. Quickly the wind grew from a breeze to a great torrent. A wave of heat started radiating from the mini-whirlwind.

"Ruby, what's going on with your uncle?" Juane asked his friend. He noticed the look on her face and grew even more worried. "Ruby, what's happening?"

"He…. He's getting angry. The wind is from his aura concentrating, churning and amplifying. The heat is from it being charged with his rage. When he gets like this, no one can touch him, but at the same time, it puts so much strain on his body and aura that there's no upside. You guys have to get out of here. I'll try to calm him down." She took a step forward as Juane grabbed her arm.

"We're not going to leave you here." The four of them were hit by a wave of blistering heat. It was getting hotter, and faster. Another wave hit them and they were forced back.

Tyrian refused to move. He would not be beaten by him again. He took a step closer and felt his leg heating up. He took another step forward and the lower part of his pant legs got seared off just above the boot. He looked into Vara's eyes.

He instantly regretted it, for what he saw was something indescribable. The pupils had vanished completely, and the whites were almost gone. It was like a whole other person had taken over. The scorpion couldn't move any further without risking losing his legs. Even with his aura still up and strong, the feeling coming out of those eyes seemed to rip through everything.

"Uncle Vara," Ruby yelled. The silver-eyed man took notice of his niece.

"Ruby," he replied slowly, "get away from me. You'll get hurt if you come any closer. I won't be able to control this much longer. Take your friends, and get out of here." The tips of his hair started to glow red.

"I'm not leaving you, and neither are they." The girl took a step forward.

Ruby screamed as her hands were burned from the heat and was forced to step back again. She looked at her palms and saw the damage. Nothing permanent, but still bad enough to hurt for a while. Why wasn't her aura doing anything?

"I told you, to get away from me for the time being. Why aren't you listening to me?" He sounded like he was fighting someone in his head. Ruby shielded her hands using her arms. She inched closer to her uncle. The teenage girl felt the heat intensifying, but she kept moving forward. She could feel blisters growing on her face, chest and legs, but kept moving. She had to get him calmed down.

She took another step as her skin started to burn. Ruby screamed as layers of skin were stripped away with the blasts of heat, wind and dust. She used her semblance to get right in front of him and wrapped her arms around his chest. She clutched her uncle tightly, no matter how much it hurt.

Since Ruby was right up against her family member, she was taking the most force of the tornado. She felt Vara's muscles clench all through his body, and his face contorted into one of sadness. The two of them dropped to the ground and the torrent stopped immediately.

Ruby's skin was red and raw, her aura completely depleted. Vara brushed the side of her face gently with his fingertips, and she flinched.

"Oh Ruby, I'm so sorry," he said to her.

"I'll be fine. Don't worry about me," she said back.

"Well now, isn't this just a heart-warming moment." Tyrian was now approaching. "I must say, that was quite impressive, that little show that you just put on."

He vanished. The next thing anyone knew, Vara was skipping across the ground like a stone across water. He ground to a halt near the far end of town. A small black bird flew down from the sky and turned into a human.

"Vara, what's going on?" Qrow questioned him.

"Scorpion, Ruby," he answered as he pointed in the direction where he came from.

Tyrian was attacking again. Juane moved Ruby away from the battle between Ren, Nora and the scorpion faunus. After she was a safe distance away, he joined the fight as well, but it wasn't enough. Tyrian knocked the three of them away and went straight for Ruby with his tail.

She held up her arms to protect herself, fullwell knowing that it would be ineffective. One of the walls of a nearby building exploded and Qrow stopped Tyrian's tail before it even got close to her.

Ruby saw him and smiled.

"Hey," he said.

"Well, as I live and breathe, Qrow Branwen. Another true huntsman has entered the fray." He started giggling again like the insane maniac he is.

Qrow looked back at Ruby.

"I don't know. This guy's weird." Qrow held his sword out in front of him in a guard position.

"Look buddy, I don't know who you are, but you'd better leave my niece alone." The man started laughing again.

A cloud of dust enveloped him as he exploded. Ruby and her friends looked toward her silver-eyed uncle. He was sitting down with a gun on his knee with a barrel at least fifteen feet long. Was that what she had seen in his satchel that morning?

"My name is Tyrian Callows." The smoke cleared from around Tyrian.

"And I have come to collect you for my queen." He got that freaky smile on his face again.

"Salem," Qrow whispered.

"Who?" Ruby inquired. She felt Vara get down next to her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled something out of his satchel with his other hand.

"Don't worry, Qrow and I will not let him take you." He held up the sfera he had grabbed in front of the two of them. He squeezed it in his hand and silver light pierced the space in between his fingers. Ruby felt her aura returning. Her skin was healing and returning to its normal tone.

Ruby stood up and grabbed Crescent Rose. She was going to help whether they liked it or not.

Author's note: We all know how the rest of the fight goes, so I am not going to go through it again. Vara helped Qrow from long range with his rifle. He does have way more experience with that thing than Ruby does with her sniper-scythe, so he actually hit Tyrian a few times and only fired when he knew he would hit. I couldn't think of what else to do with this chapter at 1,088 words, so I ended it. Next chapter I am going to go a little bit more into my character's story and how he fits into the world. I got some suggestions from someone called sketchywolf for some characters and I have decided to add some of them, not all of them. As soon as he gets back to me about it, I will let you know. Also, I am now an active beta-reader if anybody's interested. Goodbye for now. End author's note.


	6. The Final Stretch

The Final Stretch

"She'll forgive you, she'll forgive you," Tyrian whispered to himself before he ran off. Qrow collapsed on the ground, holding his new wound. Ruby ran over to him, asking if he was alright.

"What's your favorite fairy tale?"

About a Year Ago

It was the night of the dance at Beacon Academy. Ruby was walking around the courtyard near the CCT tower. She saw the guards laying on the ground, unconscious. She summoned her locker with her scroll and it came down a few feet away from her.

Ruby removed Crescent Rose and rushed inside. Up at the top, Cinder was infecting the system with the Black Queen virus. The elevator opened and a girl in a red dress with a large sniper-scythe walked through the doors. She almost tripped because of the heels on her shoes.

_Ruby Rose, Summer's daughter,_ Cinder thought as she ducked behind a desk. The sky cast a bolt of lightning at the ground a few miles away. Eyes flashed in the window against the light. Cinder noticed them, but Ruby didn't. _Damn it. He's here? _

Lightning flashed again and the eyes weren't there anymore. _He's gone. Good,_ she thought as she rose from the floor to face off with the teenager. They traded blows for a few seconds before the elevator opened again. Ruby turned around to see Ironwood, but when she looked back, the mysterious woman was gone.

Cinder was already back on the dance floor. "May I cut in?" she requested of Emerald.

"Of course." She walked off as Cinder began dancing with Mercury and filling him in on the nights events. A few minutes later, someone tapped on her shoulder. She knew who it was from the first touch. _He knows._

"May I cut in?" Cinder seperated from Mercury and began to dance with the elder Rose. He put his face close to her ear and spoke so low, that even she could barely hear him.

"I know why you're here, Cinder Fall. Don't think that you could've fooled me with this little rooze of yours. I recognized you as soon as I saw you. You may have changed your appearance, but your eyes stayed the same, they always do. If you or either of your minions lay so much as a finger on Ruby or any of her friends, I will shatter all the bones in both arms and rip them off. You've been warned." A shadow passed over them and he vanished.

Cinder looked around trying to find him, but he was nowhere to be seen.

A Year After

Later That Night

"What, no questions?" Qrow asked of them.

"Give them time to take it in." Vara broke in as he stuck a needle in his leg. He winced from the pain of the anesthetic being pushed into his broken leg.

"Why is your leg broken?" Juane inquired.

"Remember what I did after Tyrian made a go at Ruby? When the waves of heat and blasts of air were coming off me? That only happens when I get extremely angry, and when it does, it takes a toll on my body. In this case, it caused one of my legs to break and nearly ripped all the flesh from my other one." He pulled the left leg of his pants past the knee and showed the bloody bandage covering his lower leg. He switched back to his other leg and tied a stick to it as a splint.

"I have to be very careful about how aggravated I get, otherwise this happens." He flinched again as the bones clicked in place. "I don't know why it happens to certain parts of my body at one time and not all of me, but," he tethered another rope around his leg and stabbed the needle in again, "it does make the recovery a lot easier."

"That guy who came after me, he seemed to know you. Why?"

"Tyrian Callows was a mass-serial-killer that was terrorizing northern Mistral about ten years ago. Around that time, I was going up to Atlas to see an old friend of mine, and I came across an old woman who was headed that way too. I helped her get there safely, except right before that, Tyrian tried to kill me. We fought for a few minutes before I finally got an edge on him and took him down. Apparently he escaped and joined Salem," Vara continued.

"After what happened today, I'm not going to take it any longer. We'll get to Haven, but that's when I have to leave you. I want to give you all something." He reached into his bag at his feet. He pulled seven sferas from it. He gave one to each of them, except Qrow because he already had one. He handed the extra three to Ruby.

"Why do I get more than they do?" she asked. He smiled at her.

"I want you to give those to your sisters. Each person only needs one. As long as you have a hold of it, I'll be able to find you anywhere in the world." His smile quickly darkened.

"What's wrong?"

"I gave one to your mother, before she went missing."

"Wait, missing?" Ruby stood, obviously irritated. "You told me Cinder killed her. You lied to me?"

"That, was Summer's idea. She didn't want to, but before she went missing she told me to tell you that Cinder killed her if anything happened to her. She told me what she was doing, but made me swear not to speak it to anybody, ever. I gave her a sfera to keep track of her. But a few weeks after she left, I lost contact with that sfera, and in turn, my sister. I've been searching relentlessly ever since. Never stopping, hardly ever resting. Every passing moment of each day, even now, I'm still looking."

"Would you shut up? You're scaring her," Qrow told him as he took a drink from his flask. "I think it's time for bed. Get some sleep, all of you." Vara tried to stand, but he fell down.

Ruby rushed over to him to see if he was alright, only to hear him snoring. He had fallen asleep before he hit the ground.


	7. The Final Stretch part two

The Final Stretch

Part Two

Vara was dreaming about the time when he was still happy with his family. He was climbing a tree out in the backyard. He kept climbing higher and higher.

When he got too high, he stepped on a branch that couldn't hold his weight. He fell from the top of the tree and landed on his back. His sister ran over to him.

"Brother, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he told her as he sat up smiling. He popped his spine with an almost sickening crack. He stood as he prepared to ascend the tree again.

"You're going to fall again if you go to high." She yelled up at him as he clomb through the branches.

"That's the point. It's fun falling from a tree." He hit another branch and dropped. He landed on the ground where he did before. Summer flinched as her brother crashed to the ground.

"Are you sure you're alright? That didn't sound too good." Now she was only slightly worried as he started to climb the branches again. She heard a snap as Vara came crashing through the branches again.

He hit the ground laughing as several more branches fell and landed on him.

"It's getting dark, we should go back inside."

"Just one more time." Summer started to protest, but couldn't as Vara was already halfway up the tree again.

"Would you get down here!" Summer startled her brother, causing him to lose his grip and, once again, crashed through the branches and hit the ground laughing.

"That was mean, sis." She crossed her arms and smiled at him. She shook her head as she grabbed him by the back of his shirt and drug him into the house.

The next thing he saw was not such a pleasant memory. He was in northern Vytal. He was in combat with a horde of grimm. He had gotten here because he heard something about someone who he hoped was Summer around this area a few weeks ago. It had been five years since she disappeared.

_This is taking too long. _He unleashed the power hidden in his irises. All the grimm were vaporized around him. He collapsed from the effort and nearly split his head open on a rock. He laid there for hours, sending his energy out to search.

He sensed something. He stood and ran to what he was sensing. He dug through a pile of rubble. By the end of it, his palms and fingers were bloody and sore, but he found what he was looking for.

It was Summer's silver cloak. He laid his fingers upon it. He was shocked. His sister's cloak had her life energy infused with it. It had happened recently, which could only mean one thing. She was still alive. Somehow, somewhere, but alive nonetheless.

He would not stop searching for her until he found her. He grasped it in his hands. A wave of memory shot through his body like a bullet.

He saw Summer in a black castle. She held her weapon in her hands. She looked exhausted. Her weapon was touching the ground; she was barely able to hold it. Everything went black as Summer screamed.

He felt the pain she did as it happened. A pain in his chest that felt like a rather large blade piercing his lung and heart.

He woke up with a gleam of rage in his eyes. He could feel his aura strengthening. It was regenerating faster than normal. Usually after something like that, it would take at least a day and a half to recuperate all the way.

He was still laying on the ground. He stood up and saw that it was almost dawn. He sat down on one of the logs laying on the ground around the smoldering pile of embers. He pulled up his pant legs and removed the bandages from his shins.

He healed completely through the night. His aura had always been stronger than others, but it took longer for it to regenerate as a result. This was strange for it to be at full already.

He sent his aura through the ley lines of Remnant. He sent his soul in three directions and found the sferas that were held by the rest of his team. It took him several hours to pour enough of his concentration into the orbs to create a physical projection from them.

* * *

Yael was going about his day, eating breakfast, washing his dishes, going out to chop wood, that sort of thing. He finished swinging the axe and was about to put another piece of wood on the chopping block.

Something from his pocket started glowing. He thought it was his scroll and someone was calling from close by. _Wait, my scroll is in my other pocket._ He reached his hand in and pulled out the sfera that his team leader had given him sixteen years ago when the team went their seperate ways.

It was glowing. Yael had only seen it do this once before. It started rattling around and jumped from his hand onto the ground. It expanded and took the form of a human. It looked like the aura of a person, but with no body underneath it. It was Vara. He had finally contacted him again.

"Vara Rose, my old friend. It's been too long since I last saw you, especially like this. How have you been doing?"

"_Unfortunately Yael, this is not a friendly visit. Yesterday, the group I'm traveling with was attacked by the mass-serial-killer Tyrian Callows. We managed to fight him off, but he works for Her now. There is something else you should know. Cinder is back and she caused the fall of Beacon."_

Yael didn't know how to react to that. He thought that when Cinder had joined Salem seventeen years ago that was the end of it. He never expected her to return, especially at a time like this.

"What do you need me to do?"

"_Right now? Nothing. After what happened at Beacon, Haven is going to be next. I'm going to go after Salem before that happens. I will contact you when I get there. Your son, two members of his team and a friend of theirs', my niece, are traveling with me and we're going to Haven. If I don't contact you within two days after the next time, assume I've been captured. I will need you to find them. I have contact with Laura and Roy as well. Everything you're hearing from me now, they are hearing as well, with a few deviations of course. Can you do that for me?"_

"Of course. Thank you for informing me. Goodbye for now." Vara's illusion receded back into the spherical form and fell to the ground. Yael picked it up and put it back in his pocket. _Juane, what have you gotten yourself into?_

Author's note:If you are keeping up with my stories, expect the time between updates to be getting longer because school is being a major pain in my ass right now. End author's note.


	8. Kuroyuri part one

Chapter Eight

Kuroyuri

part one

Vara dropped his head into his hands, the effort of three simultaneous projections from a single sfera each drained him. He heard movement from the camp around him. They were waking up. Ruby heard coughing from a tree not far away.

She saw it was coming from Qrow and rushed to his side. Vara looked to her as she did so. Qrow took his hand from his wound, and saw it had turned purple from the venom. Vara's eyes widened. He grabbed his knapsack and ran over to them.

He set the bag next to the tree and pulled Qrow's hand away from the injury. Vara knew what he was doing. He had worked on himself and the rest of his team so much he had to. He pulled a rag from his bag and wiped away a small portion of blood with it. He took an assortment of vials, needles and beekers with lids out of his bag.

"I need someone to get water," he said as he held up one of the beekers. Ruby took it and flew to a nearby stream and filled it with water. She came back as fast as she could and handed it to him. He put the bloodied part of the rag in the liquid for a few seconds to get it all out. He closed it and shook it to death.

He popped open one of the vials and poured a small portion of its contents into the beeker. He stirred it with a small glass stick and opened another vial. It was a red liquid, almost the color of a rose. He dabbed his finger in it and put it in the bigger container. The red seeped through it and melded with the other substance without needing to be stirred.

He grabbed Qrow's hand and took a very close look at it. The aura around his eyes flared up as he enhanced his vision, his irises constricting again. He also wiped his finger across the other man's palm and tasted it.

"Damn it," he whispered, "this isn't good." Vara opened another vial, this one had a strange brown, dirty-looking liquid in it. He drained an eighth of into the larger container and stirred it. He pulled a few blades of grass from the ground and began to chew on them. He spit them out and pulled a few more. He removed a mortar and pestle from his bag and ground up the grass. He grabbed a sfera from his knapsack as well.

He held it in his hand and crushed it to dust. He almost fell over reeling, since he reduced a part of his soul to a fine powder, it hurt twice as much as having his aura broken. He sprinkled the what-was a sfera into the mortar and pestle bowl and began grinding again. He poured the liquid that was in the beeker into the bowl and stirred it with the glass rod.

He drew a syringe from his bag and put half of the liquid in it. He replaced the other portion of liquid into the beeker.

"This will ease the pain and help slow the spread of the venom. It will also strengthen you aura. You're going to have to drink this so it can go through your body naturally, but, for the fast-acting effects of it, I'm going to have to inject you with the rest." Qrow took the glass container and swallowed the contents. He gagged on it as he forced it down.

"Stay still and try not to scream, this is going to burn, a lot." He stabbed the needle into Qrow's side. He jerked his head as he felt the fluid entered the wound.

"I don't have the skill set to make a cure, so we need to get to Mistral fast. This should keep you from dying for now. You've survived worse than this, you're to tough to let a little scorpion venom get you." He patted Qrow on the shoulder as he stood up an walked over to the stream to clean his equipment.

"You four, there's some cloth in my bag, find a couple good lengthed branches and tie the cloth in between them. He's not going to be able to walk until we get the venom out of him, and that's going to be a while, hopefully not to long though." RNJR did as Vara said.

'That Tyrian is such a pain.' Vara sighed. Yes he is, Vara thought back.

* * *

A few hours later they had been in the road for a while again. Qrow was on the stretcher in between Ruby and Juane, and he was mumbling. Qrow, what have you seen? Vara thought to himself. 'You know damn good and well what he's seen.' I didn't ask you did I?

They travelled for what seemed like forever before they came to a fork in the road. A sign was in between the two paths. The one pointing to the right said Mistral, and the other has a crossed out word on it. Kuroyuri.

Vara walked up to the sign and studied it. He looked up and down the two paths, than back to the sign. He knelt down on the ground and his aura flared on his hand as he sent his mind across the land. He opened his eyes as he stood up.

"Ren, Nora, you two take the path to the right, it's shorter but goes through the mountains. Qrow won't make that in his state. Ruby, Juane and I will take Qrow through the town and meet up with you on the other side. If you come across anybody with a ship, tell them you have friends in the town. If we come across any trouble, I'll send up a distress beacon. If you come across any trouble, lead it straight to me. Move out RNJR."

Ren didn't want them to go through the town, but Vara left no room for argument. They raced across the mountain side for a good half-hour before they came to the top of the slope. Nora saw a cave next to them and suggested they should check it out because it might lead to the top of the mountain. A flag hit Ren in the face and he pulled it off.

The flag was from Shione village, five weeks behind them. They saw the weapons scattered throughout the cave first and knew exactly what they were. Trophies, taken as proof their wielders had fallen. The next thing they saw were the hoof prints of blood everywhere. They ran back toward the entrance where they had come from and saw the town from where they were.

They than noticed the trees just below them rustling and breaking as something gigantic moved through them.

* * *

The four other members of their group reached the town and laid Qrow against a tree. Vara stood a good distance away with his eyes closed in concentration. He opened his eyes as he felt something coming.

"You two stay here, there's something I have to deal with." He disappeared between two buildings, his movement silent as always.

"This is all my fault," Ruby said to herself. Juane turned around.

"What?"

"All this, it's my fault. If I hadn't drug you guys out here, we wouldn't be split up, Qrow wouldn't have gotten hurt and" Juane cut her off by grabbing her shoulder.

"This isn't your fault. We chose to come out here with you. Most people, if they went through what we did, they probably would've given up and never came near this life again, but you, you decided to go to Haven and keep it from becoming another Beacon. You kept fighting even though you knew it was going to be hard. This isn't your fault. It never was and it never will be." Ruby smiled at her friend's words. She knew he was right, and if she started to argue with him, Vara would get on her case about it, but Juane was to stubborn in the first place. He would not let her believe this was because of her.

A roar came from somewhere in the distance. Juane went to draw his blade but Ruby stopped him.

"It's far off. I'm worried about Ren and Nora. With whatever made that roar out there, I hope it doesn't find them. Vara's out there too, so with how much he hates the grimm, he'll probably be hunting whatever that was."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Juane dropped his hand from the hilt of his sword.

* * *

A grimm tore down a tree and trampled over it. It stopped and looked in curiosity at the being who dared stand in it's way. Vara stood there with his hand ready to draw a weapon as he analyzed the monster. It had heavy armor on the face of the horse, and huge horns, that would require either Concasor or Sondaj. Feeble elastic arms, Rennibraut or Feliat. Thick back legs, Concasor. Thin front legs, but to thick for a sword, Sondaj. Weak connection between the two bodies meant for a spinning attack, Rennibraut or Feliat.

That settles it than. He reached behind his back for Sondaj with his left hand and drew Feliat from his double-shabbard with his right. He brought them together at the pommel and the base of the shaft to form the weapon, Mecasekera.

* * *

Ren and Nora came crashing through the bushes into the town square. They rushed over to where Ruby and Juane were.

"Something's coming. Where's Vara?" Ren looked like he'd seen a ghost. Did it have anything to do with what Vara had been talking about? Ruby certainly hoped not.

"We don't know. He left a few minutes ago to take care of something. He told us to stay here, but what's coming?" Ruby replied. Ren and Nora looked at each other. They all a heard another roar, followed by a yell. It was a lot closer than the last time, but clearly the same one.

"We have to get out of here. It's getting closer." Ren turned toward the others.

"What's getting closer?" Ruby asked him. Ren looked away.

"The monster that destroyed this place. The Nuckelavee." He replied.

"Move!" They all looked to the sky and saw Vara flying through the air, followed by half a tree. They scattered across the courtyard. Ruby went to Qrow, ready to move him if need be. Vara landed on his feet with the blade of Feliat planted almost completely into the ground. He had attached it to Sondaj, he hardly ever did that.

He stood up and ripped his weapon from the ground.

"Ruby, get Qrow to safety. Juane, Ren, Nora, with me. Ruby, when you get him away, take up a sniping position in one of these buildings. Nora, provide cover fire on the other side of the courtyard. Ren, Juane. Distract the arms so I can get in close." Another roar came through the forest as several more trees were sent flying.

"Here it comes." He got into a guard position with the sword blade forward, ready to bring the axe head around. The sound of hooves against stone was heard, and from behind a building came a monster. It was like a centaur, but the humanish half was in the middle of the horse's back, both faces covered in dense, bonelike armor that looked to be heavily damaged already. So, Vara had been hunting something.

But the more noticeable feature of this particular grimm, the back of the imp portion was filled with so many arrows, spears and other shaft weapons that it looked like a porcupine. It's arms were also long and looked almost like tentacles with claws on the ends.

Juane went to Vara's left, while Ren went right. Nora got behind them and turned her hammer into the grenade launcher. The Nuckelavee looked at them with a cold, bloodthirsty and calculating stare. It was trying to figure out their strategy, but the horse was waiting to charge.

Vara held Mecasekera in his right hand and extended Skjoldur from his left arm into the full-body shield that it was. He looked to each person in his company and nodded. Ren and Juane ran in their respective directions toward the grimm and Vara bolted forward, one of his eyes glinting with his growing anger, his aura and power increasing as a result.

Nora sent a volley of pink blasts in behind him. They made contact at the same time, the explosives hitting the imp, with Vara bulldozing into the horse's chest, shield in front.

In a split second, he disconnected the shield from his arm as he planted it in the ground, took hold of Mecasekera with both hands, ran the sword-end through the horse and simultaneously rotated the weapon around the central connection point, nailing the grimm in the side of the horse with the axe, which in turn, tore the sword out and sent the monster flying across the yard. Before the grimm's feet left the ground he had already re-attached Skjoldur to his arm and landed on his feet.

"Nora!" He yelled.

"I'm on it." She sent another volley of high impact grenades at the monster, destroying the building it had been thrown into. One of it's arms shot out of the rubble toward the orange haired girl. A gunshot went off and the arm was knocked off course. Vara saw Ruby on a rooftop not far off.

'Looks like she got her uncle a safe distance away.' Nobody asked you, Vara retorted. You've been active a lot lately haven't you? 'Are you asking me now?' Isn't it obvious? 'Its just I enjoy violence so much I can't help myself.' Well shut up for now, you're rather distracting. Just focus on keeping the ghosts running like you're supposed to.

And with that the conversation ended. Vara turned his attention toward the Nuckelavee that was now crawling from the wreckage. The front of its chest had been sliced open, as he expected would happen from a hit like that. The monster stood on its four legs and got ready to charge.

"Ruby, aim for the eyes of the imp," Vara ordered. She fired Crescent Rose and struck the imp in the eye. It screamed as it lost a quarter of its sight. Vara bolted forward again and ran the sword-end through the grimm's chest, performing the same move as before. The Nuckelavee saw it coming that time, but Vara was to fast for it to react.

Juane and Ren went straight for it as it toppled through yet another house. It's arms came out again. One hit Juane in the chest, knocking him away, but the other one hit Ren directly and pinned him against a building across the courtyard. The other arm came in as fast as a cobra striking its prey. Ren closed his eyes, expecting the worst.

When it never came, he opened his eyes and saw Nora pinned to the wall by the head of her hammer. Vara saw they were alright for now and sighed in relief. Her opened his eyes with what looked like a small portion of silver flame coming from his left eye.

"Now you've really pissed me off." He lept toward the outstretched arms and slashed across them with the sword. It screamed as his blade raked through it's dark flesh, and Ruby had taken it's other eye. Amazingly, the arms didn't come off.

"So, your arms are like rubber to avoid getting cut off. Clever, but a problem easy to work around." Her detached the two weapons from each other and placed them on his back. He than drew the hammer, Concasor and struck the arms hard enough to rip them from the wall. Ren and Nora fell to the ground. Vara's eye was glowing brighter than before and the wispy flame coming from it was getting longer and hotter.

The silver flames made it look like his eye was steaming. He reached into his bag and drew a sfera from it. He looked at it as he crushed and reformed it into the shape of a bullet.

"Ruby, shoot this into the sky." He threw it in her direction. She used her speed to catch it and loaded it into the chamber of her rifle. She aimed toward the sky and fired the crystalline bullet into the sky. It went about a thousand feet up before Vara willed it to explode. The blast covered almost the entire sky and cast a bright light everywhere for miles around.

They should see that even in Mistral, he thought to himself. Now, back to the task at hand.

Author's note: I have been working on this chapter for five hours straight for the past three days. I'm case you're wondering what the voice Vara's been talking to is, you're going to have to wait. This story is not ready for an explanation for that yet. If you're wondering about the ghosts Vara mentioned to the other voice, he can create better projections of himself by using two sferas instead of just one that he refers to as ghosts. Across the world, he has one within ten miles of six others at all times, all across the world. So he doesn't have to use his concentration to control them, the other voice has agreed to control each and every single one of them all at once. When Vara said he was searching for Summer at all times, he wasn't exaggerating. He was searching but he also has the ghosts doing it too. That's one explanation out of the way, so that's all for now. Currently I have six other stories I'm working on alongside this one. Shout out to David Castro and his RWBY Frozen cross-over story called, Let the Sun Breathe Life Again. I have agreed to be his proofreader for each chapter before he posts it, but that's besides the point. That story is amazingly well done in my opinion. Go check it out and leave reviews for his story and this one of course. Farewell for now. Bye. End author's note.


	9. Kuroyuri part two

Chapter Nine

Kuroyuri

Part Two

Vara sent a quick pulse of aura through the ground and felt around as it ricocheted back to him. 95% aura levels. This thing was really starting to piss him off. He had hit it twice already and it still wasn't dead. Normally with a grimm of this size, one hit would send it over there, over there, and up there. But what could he expect from a grimm of this one's age. About three hundred years of he was feeling correctly, which he always did.

He got into a position similar to an Olympic sprinter and shot forward like a bullet from a gun, taking advantage of the blinding light that was still in the air. The eight-pound head on the end of the shaft flew past Vara's body as he brought it forward ahead of him, his rising anger levels giving him speed that surpassed even Ruby's, but by the end of it, a toll would take effect as well. He really needed to get control over his rage.

The wispy silver flames from his left eye passed his eyebrow as it slowly spread from the socket. He needed to finish this now, before he started burn. He got within range and swung his hammer down into the horse part of the grimm's head with enough force to level a five-story building, but he sent most of the force into the monster. Now it couldn't see at all and was planted in the ground, but all his energy was spent, RNJR would have to finish it.

He sailed past the fallen grimm, straight through the building behind it, through a few more buildings along with several trees as his aura took the brunt of it all. 90% aura levels. He lay there on his back facing the sky. It had started to rain sometime ago. Summer had always loved the rain, it made her flowers grow so much better. Plus it was another excuse to wear the hood on her cloak.

He noticed blood creeping down his forehead from his hairline. He reached his hand up and ran it through his hair. It had just grown three inches from that short burst of rage. He'd need to cut it before he left.

What is my semblance? Is this power mine, or someone else's? Vara thought to himself. What would this world be like if everyone cared, just a little bit about the other people in the world, this cruel, cruel world. The farthest back I can go is to a mountain top right after a wave of disappointment covered the world, and based off of what I can feel happened next, this is all Salem's fault. And yours. Are you blaming me? Who else would I be talking to right now? This is all your fault. You are the one to blame for all of it. This power that I have, that my father had before me, and his father before him. They all had you, didn't they? I assure you, as I did your father and his father, I am no longer the person I once was. I wouldn't even say that you're a true person anymore, since you've been with us since the very beginning. You're nothing but a splintered fragment of the spirit you were a thousand years ago. You've been with the Trandifir for the past fifty thousand years now, and you've been around for the many thousands of years between the rise of humanity and when you first found us. Before that you wandered around for a good five thousand years across the time after the Wave and before. When we bring down Salem, you're going with her. Ruby will not inherit this curse from me.

His vision was blurry after laying there for what seemed like forever. Yet another toll when he pushes it to that, he starts to lose his sight in one or both eyes. He had been enhancing his eyesight in his left eye to see anymore weaknesses in the monster's defenses. As a result of him pushing it that far, he had nearly burned his eye out of his head. Also his hair had grown again. When Tyrian showed up yesterday, he had nearly lost his legs and his hair grew half an inch. Now it was three inches longer than that, and he was bleeding from the rapid hair growth.

He caught a few gunshots with his ringing ears. He heard the group yelling a few times too. He lost track of things after that, the only thing he was paying attention to, was the quiet sound of the rain falling. That calming sound that reminded him so much of his sister and her precious daughter. Looking at them, you could tell the difference, but hearing a description of just their faces and hair, you'd think they'd be talking about the same person. He and his sister lost their parents when Summer was just a kid, Vara had almost been Ruby's age now.

I was 21 when I graduated Beacon, and Summer was just starting at Signal. Six years passed and Summer was in her second year at Beacon. I was 27, when Cinder finally showed who she really was, Salem's attack dog. She went after my sister and her team, and I went on a rampage. I nearly killed Cinder and STRQ, but thanks to my little sis, I came out of it. When I was 29, Summer graduated Beacon and joined me as a Huntress. Two years later, STRQ split up because of Raven, Qrow's sister. Tai didn't do so well for a while after that, what with a two-year-old daughter and all. Summer eventually got together with him about a year later when I was 30 and she was 22. By the time she was 23, she had Ruby a few months before. I'm 42 now, making Summer 36 this year. Tai and Summer were never officially married, but they needed to be. Three years past and Salem was trying to kill us, now that there was a next generation of the Rose bloodline. With us she had made sure we could remember our parents.

Summer didn't want what happened to us to happen to her daughters. So, she thought that if she defeated Salem on her own, Ruby wouldn't have anything to worry about. She told me where she was going and that she wouldn't let me help. I gave her a sfera to keep an eye on her and she gave me a hug goodbye. That was the last time anyone ever saw her. Two years before that, VLCRY disbanded, and shortly afterwards, that's when Cinder attacked, when she thought she knew I wasn't around. I had given them all sferas, but didn't tell them what they were. When Summer vanished, I contacted my team and explained the situation. They said they'd keep their eyes and ears open for any sign. It's been sixteen years since we seperated, and since that day, my heart and soul have grown cold and battle-hardened. It got noticeably worse for me after Summer disappeared. Especially after searching for as many years as I have with the only thing to show for it being her cloak after five years of nothing, and now it's been seven years since I found any trace of her. That's why my house is so full of boxes of books and paper. I've been writing down everything about Salem, the Silver-eyed Trandifir clan, magic and all the while searching even the deepest depths of this world for even the slightest hint of her being alive. But I've found nothing, I don't even know if she's alive or dead, because there's absolutely nothing to find.

"Vara!" He heard Ruby calling to him from deep within his thoughts.

"Vara, where are you?" That was Ren.

"Over here, under the tree." He called back. By the end of this, his weapons will be covered in blood, and his soul tainted with malice.

Through his blurred vision, he saw Ruby's beautiful eyes come over him, filled with tears. She smiled as she realized he was alright. She crouched over him and started crying into his shoulder. He readjusted so he was sitting against the tree. He wrapped his arms around her as his vision started to clear.

"We need to get out of here," he said as he tried to stand but found he couldn't. Ruby took notice of his effort and wiped away her tears to help him to his feet. Ren took the liberty of grabbing his other arm while Juane and Nora did the same with Qrow. The flare-thingy Ruby shot into the sky certainly drew the attention of the Mistral airfleet, which was the intention.

Three airships could be seen landing in the town square. The three of them hurried over to where the other half of their group was. They boarded the airship in the middle and took off. Ruby was right next to Qrow.

"What if we don't make it?" She asked.

"I'll be damned if we don't," Vara replied.

"Ruby," Juane called out to her. She looked up from her more seriously injured uncle to see that Mistral was right there. She smiled as hope and joy forced out all negative thoughts.

As soon as they landed, they were all taken to the hospital to get looked at.

Ruby walked through the door to the room that Qrow was in and smiled warmly as she knew he was now healed as "Home" starts playing in the background. She was relieved to hear that what Vara had mixed up on such short notice was actually what saved his life. She was grateful for everything she still had. She watched as he slept peacefully facing the window.

She sat down at the desk in the room and started to write another letter to home. As with the RWBY series as soon as things start to get gentle-hearted like this, especially right now, it has to change to darker imagery, but a change to that.

* * *

Emerald conjured an illusion of Ruby on her knees, her arm stretched out in an attempt to beg for her life. Cinder unleashed the full force of her newfound power against the illusion. She expected to get no resistance whatsoever, only that didn't happen. The fireblast hit something midair. Nobody saw this coming and Emerald stopped her illusion. Cinder stopped the fire and her eye widened at who she saw standing there.

It was Vara Rose, in a full, solid projection, skin tone, outfit color and everything, even the anger in his eyes was present.

"I saw what you were just about to do." If he had actually been there, the ground around him would've been melting, the air, flaming and the blood of everyone in the room, boiling. "You will not touch my niece, or I will END you. You've been warned once, this is your last one. As for you, Salem," he turned around, "sending Tyrian to collect her was the last straw. I'm coming for you now, and when I get there, you'll all wish you had died when the gods left this world. You are all going to die, no matter what, and I will put you through such a torturous death that eternal torment will be like heaven to you." The projection faded into a sphere of silvery energy and rolled over to Cinder. Why had she kept the sfera all these years?

* * *

Vara toppled out of his chair onto the floor. He'd be out for the next day and a half after that. He let his mind slip into unconsciousness.


	10. Important Story Info

Salem walked out onto the platform and floated over the chain that stretched across the great chasm. Many years ago, she imprisoned someone up here to keep them out of _his_ range.

I'm the middle of the chain hung a cage. She floated down to see the person inside. The figure cowered to the other side of the confinement. The person was clearly missing an arm, the left out to be precise. They shoved themself into the corner, their right eye filled with terror. Salem had taken the left for reasons unknown to the human.

"He said to me that he's coming. He said that he'll stop at nothing to destroy me," Salem informed her prisoner, "but like you, he is wrong. As was your father, and his father before him."

"Please, please just don't hurt him," the figure whispered. The voice was very femine, but filled with fear. "You've kept me here for the past thirteen years. When he gets here, you will regret everything you've done against our family." Salem leaned closer.

"Oh Summer. When your brother gets here, _he _will regret everything, and he Vara had suffered enough, as have you. If he gets this far and frees you, you both can go. However, if he doesn't make it here, if he falls somewhere along the way, you both will die, along with that precious daughter of yours."

Summer gasped. Ruby was going to be killed? She reached through the bars, trying to grasp Salem's robes, but she was already to far away. She fell to the floor of her prison in the sky and screamed as tears poured from her remaining eye. She clutched the stump that had once been an arm, taken right below the shoulder by a beringal.

Salem smiled to herself as she floated back towards her castle, knowing that she had just crushed any semblance of hope that wretched Silver-eyed woman had left.

"Please gods of this world," Summer whispered to herself, "answer my prayer. Make a miracle to protect my brother and my daughter from all harm that may come. Please protect them. Please." Her forehead brushed the floor as she curled up and wept until she fell asleep.

What nobody knew however, was as Summer cried, a few of her tears crept to the edge of the cage and slipped off. Those few droplets fell to the ground and soaked into the corrupted dirt. The energy within fought as hard as it could and managed to get into the ley line directly underneath the person they came from, and they escaped into the current of the river of energy.

Author's note: Okay, so. If you can't already tell, this is going to be going far from canon. My original idea for this, was not this. I was not expecting it to go so far off, and as for Summer being out of Vara's range, let me explain. Let's say that he's in an airship. If that airship is flying, the radius for his strange ability(further on that in a later chapter)is only about a hundred feet. The reason that he's able to sense things from miles away is because he sends his aura through the ley lines of Remnant. He can use this to read the history of the planet as shown in chapter three.

He cannot do this if the thing he's looking for is, say, a thousand feet off the ground. If course it doesn't really matter how high up you are if you're on a mountain. That's why Salem suspended Summer in a cage attached to lengths of chain that were fifteen hundred feet long between two mountains. Energy doesn't travel through chains in this world(my own thing)very well, which is why they're so long. Summer is also three thousand feet off the ground, so that also makes it impossible for Vara to sense her. If she had a sfera he could do it, but Salem destroyed it. Vara's sferas act as locating beacons for anyone who has one.

I know this is getting lengthy, but bare with me. Since each sfera is Vara's aura condensed it a crystalline sphere twice for one, it doubles his range to it, effectively covering the whole world pretty much. That's about it on that for now. If you made it this far through this, yay. If not, oh well. Either way, see you next chapter.


	11. The Result of Last Chapter

Ruby and her friends opened the doors and left the house they were staying at. They were going to the school to talk to Lionheart. They went one way down the street, and Vara went the opposite.

He waved at them as he left their company. He promised Ruby she would make it safely to Haven. They made it there, but it was anything but safe. He would've boiled the lot of them if Ruby hadn't been able to get him to calm down.

"Goodbye Uncle Vara," Ruby called after him. He turned around and smiled at her. Last night, he picked up a disturbance in one of the ley lines. He knew what he now had to do, and he wasn't sure if he would ever see her again.

"See you when I see you," he called back. He had gotten his hair cut a few days ago, so it was back to its normal length. "Goodbye for now, and stay out of trouble while I'm gone." He continued on his way. He closed his eyes as he concentrated on that figment of emotion he caught last night.

_Where did you come from? Show me, will you?_ His mind raced as his soul traveled throughout the planet. He was using the ley lines to boost his range, but it wasn't enough, so he decided to let the little droplet guide him back to its origin.

That tiny inkling of energy was definitely Summer. He had finally found her. He saw a great swirling whirlwind of color being parted by a little sliver of light. He could tell it didn't want to go back, but he told it that it had to. It brought him to a great ravine that stretched three thousand feet across and three thousand feet deep.

It guided him up a line through the air to the top of the ravine. What he saw was what he never thought would be possible. His eyes ripped open and he lost the connection as his vision came upon what was Summer Rose. A woman cowering in the far corner of a cage suspended off the ground with chains far out of his range.

He had reached the edge of the city by that point. He crouched behind a tree and wrapped his hands across his face. The memory of his sister sitting there with so much visible terror, it was to much for him to bare. Tears forced themselves from his eyes and trailed down his face as he clamped his hand tighter over his mouth to keep from screaming out. That image was burned into his mind and on the inside of his eyelids.

He sat there until nightfall. When the moon came over the horizon, he stood on trembling legs. He hadn't noticed the many hours that had passed. For him, it was almost immediate, but at the same time, it wasn't. That sight had shaken him so badly, it was unheard of anywhere for this to happen.

He took a step forward.

He breathed deeply as he closed his eyes and took another step. He reached his hand up and took hold of Feliat.

_Looks like it's finally time to use_ _it,_ the voice in his head spoke out.

_I_ _agree,_ he replied, _I've never used it, but it's time to bring out my ultimate weapon._

_Shimenbuki, the Annihilator, _they thought simultaneously

He drew the sword from his back and studied the dozens of grooves and crevices etched into the blade. He took notice of a small trigger at the top of the hilt, right where it joined to the guard. He pulled it and Feliat sprang to life.

The blade unfolded from the center fuller at the base, and out towards the top of the blade at a ninety degree angle to the tip. It unfolded again, revealing another set of winged blades underneath, folded inside the other. It continued unfolding in that fashion until it spanned a twenty foot length from left to right.

He looked in the core of the weapon and saw the sferas he put in it many years ago. Eleven aura spheres lined the inside of the longsword, all of them glowing brilliantly. Rennibraut could do this as well, and the two could combine to form a greatsword called Tukhoa.

But that wasn't by far the best part. The four weapons, combined with the disc in his satchel at the center, they would become the most unstoppable force on the planet. And that wasn't the half of it. In order to bring out its true power, Vara would have to give up control of his body to the voice in his head, and they would have to merge.

He took a step forward as he released the trigger and the blades retracted and folded back into the blade. He took another step and started walking. In his fifth stride, he started a light jog. When he had gone a hundred feet, it turned into a steady run, and when he had gone another hundred feet, he broke into a sprint. He ran for a mile, than in a burst of speed, he went faster and his speed kept increasing. Instead of using his rage to power himself like he had for so long, he used the joy in knowing that Summer was still alive to keep his aura strong.

Aura levels, ninety-seven percent.

His soul had suddenly strengthened far beyond what it had been for the past thirty years, ever since he first forced it out at ten. He didn't feel his legs breaking as he thundered across the continent. He didn't notice the passage of time either. There was one place he needed to be, and nothing was going to stop him. But first, he needed to get back to the house. He was going to build something to allow him to reach her. He doubted he could pull it off, but he had to.

He had no choice if he wanted her back. He ran for the entire night and all of the next day and following night. He didn't make it to the house until three days after he separated from the others.

He stopped as he came up behind his house. He laid his hand on the wall and closed his eyes. He sent his aura through the building, awakening it from it's dormant state. The stone wall in front of him opened to a hallway so long, he couldn't see the end of it.

He stepped through the gap as the opening closed behind him. His aura had been working on keeping his legs from shattering on the way there.

Aura levels, eighty percent.

As he made his way down the slight incline of the corridor, lights in the upper corners, where the walls met the ceiling, lit up when he walked up to them, and turned off when he passed. By the time he got to the end, his legs had completely healed.

The hall opened up into a great room the size of Wembley stadium from England. Scattered all over the place were parts of bigger machines he had been working on.

Unlike most people, he hadn't built his weapons, he'd just augmented them. Because of this he had little engineering know-how. Roy had taught him everything he knew about building and designing machinery.

He scanned the room for something as he walked across the length, back and forth, and went from wall to wall, over and over again. He finally found what he was looking for, a set of four engines he had built. Roy had helped him with the initial build of the insides of the thrusters, and figured out how to convert aura into combustible material to power them. One thing they couldn't figure out, was how to attach them to the legs and get the omni-directional motion to attain controlled flight with them.

One thing to do first though. Since Summer was in fact alive...

He reached into his bag and pulled out seven sferas. He set them up in a circle and sat in the middle with crossed legs and closed eyes. He concentrated and his hair started moving as if the wind had picked up, but there wasn't any. The sferas around him lifted off the ground as they began to glow. He opened his eyes and pathways opened across the planet.

He channeled energy into his team's sferas and brought them to life. He had learned several years ago that using sferas as catalysts greatly decreased the concentration needed to do this.

"Team, there's been a change of plans. I have gathered new information and you all need to hear it. Meet at the bunker in two weeks with your combat gear and the rest of your equipment."


	12. A Glimpse of Childhood

Vara was sleeping in the rafters. It had been a few days since he sent out the call. He much preferred sleeping high off the ground than anywhere else because it gave him more time to react if things went wrong. His mind went deep into the ground and through the earth until it found something of interest. It was a grave buried in a cavern a couple miles beneath the surface.

_How strange for something like that to be down there._ He shifted his weight as he slept. His mind went deeper into the cavern and saw what had been buried there. He saw through the stone coffin clad in iron to see a figure, decayed and decrepit, with two swords crossing it's chest with a shield over top of them. He thought he saw something else about it too, but when he looked closer, it moved.

* * *

One night, grimm broke into the house. The mother told her son to grab his sister, go out the back and hide in the woods until she came for them. He ran to the river as he heard an explosion behind him. He looked over his shoulder for a brief second and saw a pair of eyes following them with a giant plume of smoke behind it, fire on its back.

He knew exactly what it was, a Beowulf, and it was closing the distance. A nine year old boy, carrying a baby girl that wasn't even a year old yet, being chased by a full grown grimm. They would be done with in no time at all. But he couldn't let that happen.

He had to protect his sister, no matter what. The young boy saw an open tree far ahead of him. It would go unnoticed by anyone else, but he often used it to hide from his father when they were playing. He ran faster than he'd ever ran before to get to it before that monster caught them.

He stowed her inside and ducked out of the way of the charging grimm. He pulled a knife from his pants pocket his mother had given him. It only had a three inch blade, but even a tiny knife is better than nothing in a fight. He was still so young and yet, his parents had insisted on teaching him how to fight.

_Time to put these skills to the test._ His father had drilled into his head that you never charge an opponent unless you're absolutely certain you can bring them down, and with this thing, he ran.

He needed to get away from the tree to keep his sister safe, so he ran off trail and into the woods. It was past dusk, but he'd run these woods his entire life and even in the dark he could find his way around. He intentionally cracked and broke several branches behind him to lure it away. He kept looking behind him to make sure it was still following.

The boy saw it jump towards him. In his fear, he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, and he tripped. He faceplanted into a pile of thorny vines as the grimm sailed over him. He got up as fast as he could and started running again, his face bleeding from the cuts.

_I'm sorry, sister, but I can't be with you right now. Mom told me to keep you safe and this is how I'm going to do it. I will kill this thing, to **protect YOU!**_

His eyes started to glow as their power was released. His silver eyes flared to life as he ran. He knew in his heart he couldn't take this monster alone, but what he did know is he would have to for her to survive. And that's what did it, his drive to protect his family activated his eyes and the light spread over the surrounding forest and hit the grimm full force, vaporizing it instantly.

When morning came, the young boy opened his eyes and noticed he was laying face down in the grass. He pushed himself off the ground, wondering what he was doing out there, and than he remembered last night. His eyes widened with realization.

He bolted back through the woods to the path leading to the river and rushed to the tree he stowed his baby sister in last night. He ripped the bark off the tree and looked inside.

He was relieved to see she was okay. He pulled her out as she started to cry from being woken up by the sudden amount of light.

"No, shhhhh, it's okay, everything's fine. Bubba's here now," he cooed gently as he rocked her back and forth in his arms. "You're alright, we're safe now. I'll never let anything happen to you, I promise." The young boy held his even younger sister close to him as tears slipped from his eyes and kissed her forehead. He was so happy she was safe and sound.

One thing was wrong. Their parents never came for them.

* * *

Silver eyes crept open in the darkness of a bunker. The lights around them flickered on around the figure that appeared around the silvery spheres. Vara unlatched the guards of the swords from the secure hold of the shabbard, put the two other weapons on it as he stood from his perch in the ceiling and lept to the floor.

_That's right, I promised Summer I'd never let anything happen to her. Clearly I've failed at that. _Don't beat yourself up for that. If you want to blame anyone, blame Salem and all those on her side. If you want to, you can even blame me for all of this. _It's only because of you that I was able to find her. I thank you for that, and if not for you, none of us would even exist. I'm still kind of torn between thanking or hating you for that._

I contacted your team while you were sleeping and told them the timeline has been sped up. _Why did you do that? That wasn't the plan._ I know, I know, but I found out that Salem is planning an attack on Haven during the next full moon, so, if we want to stop it, we're going to need to be leaving in about a week if we want to stop it and not have them deal with it. Judging on what I found through the ghosts, Salem's palace is a week and a half away from here on foot, and we don't exactly have an airship handy.

_Maybe not, but I know who does._

_Author's note: So, not much going on in this chapter, but we did get to find out what happened to Vara and Summer's parents and why she doesn't remember them, like, at all. Also, we got some more information about the voice in his head. Somebody messaged me a week ago and asked me if I could include the fight with Tyrian in this, instead of the way I did it. I will try, but it's not a definite answer yet. If you remember a very particular episode from the show, you should be able to figure out who or what the voice is. I got to this point by the time I realized it was all still in italics, and since I'm doing all this on mobile, the only way I can change it is by going back word by word, and I am not doing that. Also, if anybody wants to help me write these or be a beta-reader, or even have a beta-reader, or just have any ideas in general, send me a message. Oh and check out my Inuyasha meets RWBY story._

_Leave reviews for this and that if you feel like it, it doesn't really matter either way, but I find a feeling of accomplishment everytime someone leaves a review, once in a very great while. I will go back to team RNJR, Oscar and Qrow the next chapter because the scene where Ruby talks to Oscar about what happened is always heart wrenching and I couldn't stand myself if I left that part out. Goodbye for now. Oh, one more thing. Check out my favorited stories because I can assure you, they're all good quality. Real goodbye for now. See you later. End author's note._


	13. A Look into Hell

Vara ducked under a tree branch as he moved through the forest. It had been thirty years since he'd taken that particular path. He was headed back to where it all started.

Home.

A few days ago, he had stopped by Tai's place and told him what he'd found. It still sent shivers down his spine whenever he remembered what he'd seen. Summer, bound, tortured and caged like a wild, rabid animal. His dearest sister. A tear rolled down his face at the thought. He wiped it away with his arm as he came into a clearing.

He opened his eyes and looked upon grounds he hadn't seen in decades. The clearing in the forest was filled with a pile of ashes. It hadn't blown away, even after all those years. He took his first step on his home grounds. He could feel the ashes compress under his weight as he sank into the pile with each stride. He came to the center and stopped. He closed his eyes and faced the sky, the heat of the sun coming through the atmosphere and warming his face.

He concentrated as he sent his aura from his feet, through the ashes and into the ley line below. He needed to go deep for this. Vara reached out his aura and mind like the roots of an old oak, covering the land for miles around him. He scraped up every last bit of information about that night. He needed to know what he would be dealing with.

He hadn't been able to get into Salem's castle but for that one time when he sensed Cinder's hatred flare, causing his to rise in return. He pulled all he found together from the ground, the forest, the ashes.

His eyes tore open when he found it. That thing he found underground that morning. The skeleton that moved. He saw a figure covered in darkness, red smoke and black fire rising into the sky above, devouring the surrounding lands with the building. He saw his father and mother, each one holding one of the swords he carried with him today. They were in a weapon bind with the dark figure. He ducked under their blades, causing them to fall forward, giving him an opening and stabbed them in the base of their spines with his claws.

They fell to the ground and he flipped them over an instant later. He knelt down in between them and, using their own weapons, killed them. Suddenly, a bright silver light tore through everything from somewhere in the woods. The vision vanished as the light faded. The skeleton in the stone coffin was Salem's greatest creation.

Lusas Naturae. A monster from an older world. Her personal beast of attack, and almost as old as she is. _Hey, do you know anything about him?_

**I don't remember much about him, but I do know he was a Trandifir.**

_Is that it?_

**Not quite. The other thing I remember is his name was Tempest, and he went after Salem many thousands of years ago. He was one of the first generation and when he was finally killed, he was buried in his birthplace. Oniyuri, the first fortress. He wiped out their entire army before they could bring him down, but now that he's back, and in Salem's command no less, if we have to fight him, we may have to go for the seconds.**

_ Our strongest state, but also our most straining. How many times can we do it before my body fails?_

**I'd say, about three times more. We can only go the seconds though. If we try for longer, we will die and I will pass to Ruby.**

_I won't let that happen._

**I know you don't want her cursed with me, but should we fail, it will happen. We need to come up with a plan if we are to win this.**

Vara sat down and sank deeper into the ashes of his old home. "Alright. So what do we do if we can't win."

* * *

100 percent. The greatest number in this world. You can not go past one hundred percent. If you have, you were not truly going all out. If you push past your limits, those limits never existed to begin with. If you hit a block and go absolutely all out and still can't get past it, you were never meant to. Everybody has their limits. Even the greatest warriors in the universe.

Never forget, no matter how strong you are, there is always someone stronger. No matter how skilled you are, there is always someone better. No matter how intelligent you are, there is always someone who can outsmart you. No matter how fast or quick you are, there is always someone faster and quicker. No matter who you are, even if you're the best there ever was, there is always someone with a higher hundred percent than you.

Remember that. No matter how good you are at anything, there is always someone better. That goes for everybody. It doesn't matter how good your heart is, there will always be a better person. This goes for Ruby as well. She has the best heart I've ever come across, but there is someone with a better heart than even her. Vara is the strongest this world has ever seen. Even the ancient ones never saw one as great as he, but there is someone stronger than him too.

* * *

When the skies rain blood

And stars fall from the heavens

There is a light brighter than all others

But the brighter the light, the faster it goes out

All lights flicker and die, no matter how brilliant

He will find someone stronger

And he will fail

There will be no victory in strength

But perhaps, victory exists in the things we forget

Maybe we need a simpler, more honest soul

The wolves and soulless will rise to drown light in darkness

But whether they fail or succeed

Is entirely up to the future to decide

* * *

The prophecy of the ancient Trandifirian peoples. Older than recorded time itself and all except for the beginning, it is coming true. Can Vara stop Salem, or will he fail and leave it in Ruby's hands to finish the job? All is unknown at this point, but it will be revealed soon.

Next time on The Silver-eyed Warrior, chapters fourteen through seventeen.

VLRY will reunite for the first time in over a decade and face Salem in her home territory. We'll get back to RNJR and the others. After that, we'll see the aftermath of VLRY's attack on Salem's castle. Than we'll go into their backstory and see how Cinder first met them. After all, she wasn't always the way she is today, no one ever is. Until next time, see you guys later.


	14. One Hundred Seconds to Go

One Hundred

Seconds to Go

Vara rested his back against a vertical wooden beam after removing his equipment and hanging it on a nearby hook. He crossed his arms as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

He saw nothing but darkness and felt an impending doom creep in from the black around him. He shifted his weight and saw something from the shadows. He couldn't quite tell what it was, but it looked like two lights close enough together to be eyes. They gave off a light that was darker than the shadows around them. Almost an unfathomable black and an immense desire to destroy emanated from them.

He heard something hard and heavy hit the ground as the lights approached. His eyes tore open as he realized what was happening. He saw what was going to happen in the next few days. That wasn't normal, unless... He gasped.

"I need to stop her from resurrecting more. Hey, you there?"

_ Of course I am. Where else would I be?_

"Shut up for a second. Do you know where the tombs are?"

_Of course I do. I have been with this bloodline since the beginning so there's no way I would forget something like that._

"Open a pathway through the ley lines to each one." He fell from the rafters and landed in a cross legged position on the ground. He slammed his palms against the concrete and sent his soul through the planet, as deep as he could reach, as far back as he could go.

Directly beneath him, he could feel the emptiness that contained his store of sferas. He pulled them from the vats they were in, onto the floor and willed them through the world. His lips slipped open and a roar that could be felt for miles around escaped his throat.

* * *

Many Miles Away

A man sitting in the driver seat of an unidentified vehicle pushed the throttle all the way, increasing its speed to the maximum. A meter on the dashboard, similar to a Geiger counter was going crazy, hence the increase in speed. It was in fact an aura detector meant to home in on specific people or scan for aura spikes, such as the use of a semblance.

A woman opened the door behind the man and walked into the room. She wore a backless, brown tank top, exposing her back, covered in armored plates. On her feet she wore knee high, armored combat boots with mail pant legs going just over the tops. Her hair was a vibrant purple, sea green eyes and where her ears should have been, she possessed ears similar to that of an armadillo.

"What do we got?" She asked the man in the driver's seat. He had a head of burnt orange hair, the ends creeping out from underneath a heavy, metal plated helmet, and indigo eyes. He had a beard coming down to the middle of his chest, covering the top part of a solid steel plate. His arms and legs also bore metal across them, his forearms bulging out from his two weapons, Heaven and Hell.

"I'm detecting a massive power spike from in front of us," he responded.

"What's the E.T.A.?"

"About five minutes, so sit tight." The woman left the room and closed the heavy door. She walked over to a bench fixed to the wall and sat down next to the third member of their team.

He had blonde hair tied at the base of his neck that came down to the middle of his lower spine. His beard had been cut short, but not to the skin. He had dark blue eyes, with a scar crossing from the right side of his forehead to left side of his jawline. His chest was wrapped in a mail shirt with a gambeson visible underneath. Plated boots enveloped his feet and steel gauntlets covered his hands. His fingers were interlocked with each other, almost like he was trying to strangle his own fingers.

"Hey, are you alright?" She asked her friend. He looked up at her like she had woken him from a dream.

"Yeah, yeah I'm alright." He pulled his hands apart and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. The woman placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I know that look, and you know you can talk to me. So tell me, what's going on?" She asked gently. He laid his forearms across his knees and leaned forward, spine straight as a brand knew arrow.

"I'm just worried about Vara. What if we don't make it to Summer in time? When she vanished almost fourteen years ago now, it nearly tore him apart. And that's how he came to realize he could combine the sferas to make ghostly projections with them, hence the name. But if we do get her and Salem's been torturing her? I don't know how he'll take it." He laid his head in his hands.

"Yael, I know how you feel. I'm thinking the same thing." Laura took her hand from her friend's shoulder. "I remember when we first met Summer, and she was such a nice person. Whenever she interacted with Vara, I always got the impression that he was her father, but that couldn't have been possible because he clearly stated they were siblings. She never called him by his name, she always called him, 'Brother'. I want to rescue her, I do, but, what if Salem found out we're coming and is going to be ready?"

"Come one Laura. I understand your concern, but Vara will have a plan. He always does, but, I don't think he'll be coming out of this with us. Knowing that Salem has his sister must have filled him with enough hatred and rage to make him unleash his wrath against them."

"That's something else I'm worried about. If he does use his anger to fight, will he survive this, or will we have to go on without him?" She felt a pair of very strong arms wrap around her shoulders. She looked over to see Yael hugging her tightly. She put her arms around his shoulders as well and embraced him. "What if we don't make it out alive?"

"He would never let us fall on the battlefield. He'll protect us as we look after him."

* * *

Twenty Minutes Later

Vara opened a door he hadn't touched in thirty years. The hinges creaked as they turned. Dust fell from the door as it moved through the stale air, cobwebs trying to keep the door closed with a futile effort.

"So, it's finally time." He entered the room and closed the door behind him. That room held only one thing. A glass display case holding a full suit of black, rubber armor prisoner. He drew Concasor and struck the glass with the head, shattering it into pieces ranging from sand-size to small windows.

"My father's armor, Bronya. I don't know how well it'll hold up, but anything before that, it should be strong enough to handle." He reached in and grabbed the breastplate.

* * *

He exited the building and walked down the path to the tank that sat at the end. A heavy metal door slid open, revealing the inside of the vehicle, along with three people.

"It's been a long time, team. Nice to see you all again." He jumped up into the tank with the rest of them. "We ready to get out of here, Roy?"

"We're just wasting time standing here and talking, so yeah, we're ready to go. What about you, Vara?" Said man looked up into the blue sky and closed his eyes, feeling the light and wind on his face one last time before answering.

"Yeah, I'm ready. I've also called in a little help from all over the world. They should be arriving now." He looked into the treeline for a second, before a great rumbling was heard. It sounded like an incoming earthquake, but calmer. Suddenly, from the woods stepped forth an army, but not of humans or faunas. No, it was all the ghosts from all around the world. About a million in all, I'd say.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go get her!" Roy yelled as he and the others raised their fists high above their heads.

Team VLRY was back.

* * *

Salem's Castle

Summer's Prison

She hung there, in that iron cage, thousands of feet above ground, too high to jump from. She wiped a tear away from her remaining eye with her only hand, a small whimper escaping her throat. She looked toward one of the mountains she was bound to. She turned and looked to the next. Summer than stood and looked toward her feet, wondering if Salem would take a leg next, or her other arm.

As she looked at the floor of her cage, she saw a light pass in between her legs, casting a shadow that disappeared over the edge. She turned around to see what it was, and saw something she had never even imagined before, her lone eye widening at the sight of a silver sunrise.

In the time she had been imprisoned, she had never seen daylight. She couldn't even remember what dawn looked like, until the day when she saw that sight. Through the brightness, she saw a small speck on the horizon. Of course she knew who it was and what was happening. She smiled and collapsed onto her knees, tears streaming down her face.

She wiped them away with her hand as the light grew brighter and the speck got closer. "Thank you, Brother. I knew you would come for me, but Salem always told me you wouldn't." A sob broke through and she started crying from shear joy.

Minutes later she could finally see the speck clearly, and it wasn't a speck, but a mighty flying tank, backed up by an army of what seemed to be light. Summer looked past the black palace and onto the valley of grimm as the armies of light and hordes of grimm collided. The army pushed past the grimm, forcing its way through them like a wave of water over a small sandcastle.

The sound of flight engines overcame the torrent and she looked up to see the airship flying towards her, and it was exactly who she expected. Her father figure, her mighty brother who raised her, and his team. He had the door open on the side and was hanging out into the wind, an enraged expression on his face.

The airship pulled up next to her prison and she rushed to the bars to see her brother. Vara reached through the caged wall and put a hand on her cheek. He smiled gently at her as she smiled back. He pulled his hand out and placed it behind his back.

"Stand back. I'm going to break the bars." Summer went to the other side as Vara drew Sondaj from it's position and swing it across the cell wall, ripping the bars out of their welded fixtures, switched it to his other hand and returned it to his back. He held his arms open and Summer ran to him.

She lept into his arms as he held her tight. Vara held her off the ground and swung her legs up to his chest as he carried her into the ship. He laid her down on one of the benches and sat down next to her. She leaned against him as he looked at her. He wrapped his arm around her, and that's when he felt it. Every last horrific thing she had been put through.

"Summer," he said to her, his voice hollow.

"Yes, Brother?" She replied worriedly.

"Show me your eye and your arm." Her eye widened slightly before closing a little bit more than before. She knew she couldn't lie to him, she had tried before but he always knew, so she didn't even try since she was seven. She sat up straight and pulled up the left sleeve of her black shirt. She didn't even have to finish before he figured it out.

Her left arm was gone. Vara placed the tips of his middle and pointed fingers on her left hip and slowly moved it up her side, past the space between her hips and ribs, over her ribcage, past her lungs and heart, up onto her shoulder where he stopped. She looked at his face and saw his eyes closed, a calm look over his face, but beneath his eyelids, a faint silver glow.

He continued tracing his finger past her shoulder and up her neck onto her face. He moved his fingers up to her ear and placed his thumb on her face. He moved it slowly and gently across her cheek to her left eye socket, which he found empty and his eyes tore open, a look of fury on his face.

He stood up and walked over to the door, opened it and was about to jump out, when Summer grabbed his hand.

"What are you doing?" He asked her.

"I'm not going to let you do this."

"And why not?"

"You're my brother and you just got me back. I just got you back, and I can't lose you now." She was about to say something else when he turned around and embraced her.

"Summer, my dearest sister. I love you more than anything else in this world. It is because of my love for you that I feel such rage to see you put through such things. I may not come back from this, but our goal was to get you out, and if I go down there, it will increase your chances of escape. If I drop within the next two minutes, you have to leave me behind. Don't come back for me, please. Promise me that, will you?" Tears started flowing from Summer's lone eye as she wrapped her arm around him.

"I promise, that if you, fall, in the next, two minutes, I'll, leave you behind," she struggled to get the words out. "Please Brother, come back to me soon. Promise me you won't let Salem kill you."

"I promise I won't let Salem kill me. Goodbye." He let her go, turned around and jumped out of the airship. She tried to go after him, but he was already to far down to hear.

"Brother! BROTHER!" She slumped to the floor and started to cry again. "Brother, please don't leave me."

Vara dove headfirst toward the ground. "Summer, I will win this battle for you. One Hundred Seconds to Go!" He roared as his eyes glowed a terrifying silver.


	15. The Voice Revealed

Salem stood at a window in her black castle and looked out into the valley of grimm. The battle that was ensuing was like nothing she'd ever seen before. A literal war between light and dark. Silver aura against black grimm. An army to rival that of the four kingdoms combined was trying to lay siege to her fortress.

Her eyes turned as a roar, loud enough to shake the very mountains to their cores, ripped through the air. She turned toward the direction it was coming from and saw a silver ball of light, resembling a Sun, flying at the castle. The moment she saw it five miles away, it was already crashing through the walls. Salem was knocked a few dozen feet through the air and she landed on her feet using her magic.

The Sun stood in front of her and faded to reveal a human, taller than even Hazel, standing before her. The red tips of his onyx hair glowed like phosphorescent blood and his eyes radiated an almost evil energy.

_This isn't good,_ Salem thought to herself. _He's going into his beserker state. He must've used the army as a distraction so he could get at Summer. Smart move._

"Salem," Vara's voice boomed across the castle. "You have held my family long enough. You will pay for it with your very soul!" He bolted forward at incalculable speeds, hammer coming off his back. He brought it around his body the instant he left the floor and was about to bulldoze into the witch, when she smiled.

Vara looked behind her and the black eyes from his dream came out of the darkness. The figure attached to them wore a pair of black pants that came down just past his ankles and nothing else. He also had black hair at the roots that faded into red. It was almost like looking in a mirror, the resemblance between the two was so exact. Down to the last muscle, except for the eyes. Tempest Trandifir. Lusas Naturae.

He stepped further into the room, bent down and vanished. Before Vara even knew what happened, the other had hit him so hard it sent him through the castle and the mountain it was attached to. Even at that point, Vara still hadn't hit Salem yet. Keep that in mind.

100 seconds to go

Vara and Tempest clashed as they flew through the air.

The Black-eyed man threw the other to the ground, and he slid to a stop, burning the soles from his boots. He drew a sword from his back and bolted forward. He extended his shield and rammed into the other, only for him to sidestep and throw Vara into the mountainside.

Vara came back out like a hurricane, and slammed into Tempest, sending him flying, but not dazing him. Vara went for him again and was about to strike, when Tempest morphed into something resembling a lightning bolt made of darkness and appeared behind him. He struck Vara in the neck with a fist and grabbed a sword with the other. Vara was sent a hundred feet into the ground.

Tempest landed at the hole and jumped down. A thousand feet away, the two exploded from the mountain. The two flew through the air, clashing swords hundreds of times a second. They flew up into the atmosphere, creating a Sun of dark and light, sending what would be called the solar winds all through the valley.

Vara drew his hammer with his off hand and swung for Tempest's head. He dodged and nailed Vara in the face with the pommel of Rennibraut. As the other man fell to the ground, Tempest grabbed the poleaxe and attached it to the other end of the sword.

Tempest chased Vara all the way to the ground and hit him in the chest the moment Vara struck the rock below. He bounced from the impact and Tempest hit him again in the side, once again sending him flying. When he he hit the ground, Vara held his blade in both hands, twisted the top and bottom halves of the hilt 90 degrees toward each other, separating the sword in half along the edge, all the way down to the tip and slammed it into the ground, cutting a ditch three feet across.

Tempest bolted forward and stopped right in front of Vara, who had raised his sword to run the other through. Tempest moved around him faster than Vara could even comprehend. He felt a foot in the back of his head and the next thing he knew, his face was getting burned off from the friction of the slide. He turned himself over and Tempest landed on his chest, knocking the air out of him.

"Your power is truly amazing. Your speed and strength have been tripling with each passing second. How does your body keep up?" Vara tried to hit him in the face with the hammer, but he dodged again. He brought his leg around and tried to strike Tempest in his knees, only for him to jump out of the way and off his chest. Vara took the opportunity and flipped to his feet.

"Ah, your body isn't keeping up. It's good to know you have a limit I don't." He looked at the pool of blood on the ground in front of him. "That armor of yours is annoying. Let's get you out of it, shall we?" This time, Vara could see what was happening and reacted accordingly. Tempest got behind him to strike, but Vara put his shield arm in between the two for a block.

"Even if you do beat me here, you won't get my sister again." Vara pushed off the ground and bulldozed past Tempest and took off running.

"You can't outrun me, Vara." He appeared in front of him, his arm outstretched and clotheslined the other man.

Vara hit and slid across the jagged rocks, destroying the armor on his back. He stood and sped forward and slammed into his adversary. "I don't need to outrun you, I just have to last long enough for them to get away." Tempest smiled at that.

"Than I guess I'll just have to stop them." Vara's eyes widened as his enemy tore the weapon from his hand, his shield from his arm, flipped him around and ran him through with both swords. One went through Vara's heart and the other through his right lung. Tempest pulled the triggers on the two blades, extending them outwards, separating Vara into four pieces.

His body fell to the ground and Tempest pulled the rifle from Vara's bag. He separated Mecasekera and planted the sword halfway into the ground. He mounted the rifle on it, extended the barrel and aimed for the airship in the distance. He unleashed a barrage of black aura bullets at the people inside.

The projectiles hit the airship, causing the engines to catch fire and smoke. Laura opened the door and clomb out, using her semblance of Beast Form to get to the engine. Roy stepped in front of the open door, spread his hands out to the space around him and willed his aura out of his body in a web, expanding his aura to cover the width of the opening and using his semblance of Bounce to send any incoming bullets back to where they came from.

Yael was piloting with Summer next to him in the cockpit. He was doing his best to avoid the shots while not knocking anyone off of the ship. Laura extended Beowulf paws from her forearms and used the claws to grip the metal ship. She got to the engine and expanded nevermore wings from her back and flapped them, extinguishing the flames.

She crawled back to the door, the armored plates on her back blocking the bullet fire. Roy pulled his aura from the opening, creating a hole just big enough to get through.

"How bad is it?" Roy asked her as he closed the door.

"It's bad. If we don't land, we won't be able to get out of here," she responded.

"Damn. Yael, land it and activate the treads. I'll put up a shield while you do it." He placed himself in the middle ship and slammed his fists together. When they struck, a sphere of aura expanded from his body and enveloped the ship. They hit the ground hard and nearly toppled over. Tempest smiled evilly as he kept up the barrage.

"There's no escaping me," he yelled.

"Do you have any idea how much that hurt?" This voice was new. It was deep and booming, yet, quiet and smooth. The bullets stopped and Tempest turned around to see none other than the man he killed not five seconds ago. Vara's eyes were closed, his face calm.

"But, how? I killed you, how are you alive?" Vara's body stepped forward.

"You cannot kill us, and you should've known that. After all, I am the one who killed you last time, about fifty thousand years ago if memory serves." He opened his eyes. One silver, and the other, black as the void. "You will die, and afterwards, Salem's next. We may not be the purifying light you should fear, but you should fear us nonetheless. That goes for you too," he turned toward Salem, "my dearest daughter."

He vanished after he said that final word. The next thing anyone knew, Tempest was flying in one direction and his legs in the other. The knew adversary appeared in front of his face, smiling, when he was sent flying through the earth. He burst through the bedrock into a tunnel filled with liquid.

It looked like an underground river, but nothing like that existed here but the pools of grimm. He was swept away by the current as Vara went after him. He slammed his hand into the wall to redirect his momentum up and around, hoping his opponent would overshoot him. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

* * *

Summer looked through the armored front of the tank at the man who was trying to kill them. A dark mass rose up from behind him and formed a body. It's skin materialized and hardened into a shell. It spoke something she couldn't quite hear and the Lusas Naturae turned around.

Nobody caught what happened next, but what they knew was that a part of Salem's castle exploded and two holes in the ground burst open, miles away from each other and the two figures were gone.

* * *

Salem looked at the battle from her now destroyed palace, her eyes wide with terror. "That voice. I haven't heard it since before Armageddon. It can't be. Father?"

* * *

Tempest was hit by a kick and sent flying through the roof of the tunnel. In under a microsecond, he shot through the rock and into the sky. He was losing blood quickly, so he needed to get his legs back. He harnessed what dark power he still contained within his body and propelled himself to the ground. Vara was already underneath him and slammed into his chest with his shoulder, destroying the armor left there.

Of course at these speeds, it was about to burn off anyway. Tempest shot upwards to the very edge of the atmosphere.

"Hello again. Fancy seeing you up here too." He rotated his body and saw Vara floating above him, the sun behind his body. "Two seconds left. As long as we're like this, nobody can kill us for long. Actually you cleaving us into pieces like that gave me the opening to come out. Nobody else has ever done that. I thank you. Aura levels: 1%. One second remaining."

"Who are you?"

"My body was destroyed long ago by Ozma before Armageddon, so I infected him and gave him a lethal sickness. I pulled myself into Salem and ended the world. When Ozma returned, I just couldn't help myself. He birthed the first Silver Eyes, and the Trandifirian bloodline was born. As for who I am. I am Morotha, Salem's father and destroyer of the last world. You however, are as insignificant as a pebble compared to a planet."

His body pulsed. His eyes widened in realization and in a strained voice, "you stalled us. It was your plan from the beginning if you couldn't beat us." His eyes faded into their normal silver irises and the voice vanished. "Smart, bastard." With that, the two fell back down to earth.

Tempest still had power to protect himself from the fall, but Vara had used it all in a last ditch effort to reap his vengeful wrath upon those who wronged him. The outer layers of his skin burned off as he fell. What remained of his clothing beforehand was now gone. He fell through the hole he had created by punching Tempest through the crust and into the river of energy.

He didn't come back up and was washed down the tunnel with the current. Yael saw what had been happening with his semblance of Animal Senses. He explained to the other what transpired. Summer broke down, sobbing out of her remaining eye. There could be no way for anybody to survive something like that. Laura took her into the back while the guys focused on getting away from that godforsaken place.

Author's note: Well, that was shitty. Anyone who expected something like that to happen, HOW DID YOU KNOW!? Anyway, not even I knew this was going to turn out like it did. Next chapter, we'll be going back to the main storyline for the show. Now, just so you know, it's only been about a month since Vara left the main group, which means we'll be coming in somewhere in the middle of volume five. I have an idea for where it's going to be, but it's not concrete yet. For all those people wanting to know if Vara survived, I'm not telling. In all honesty, anyone falling from that height would get burned up in the atmosphere and even if they didn't, they would die from the impact, whether they landed in a ley line or not, the magical overload being the main cause of death. Vara fell in with no aura to protect him from that much power. Quite the shocker at the end too. I've had that idea floating around in my head for a while now. Well, until next time. Goodbye. End author's note.


	16. How Grief is Seen in the Eyes of Another

Menagerie

"I don't get it," Sun yelled as he slammed his cup onto the table. "How can they just sit around while the White Fang is getting ready to attack?"

"Because not everybody's like you and I. The faunus here on Menagerie, the ones not born on the island, moved here because they were tired of fighting, of having to struggle constantly. Menagerie is filled with people who just want to be left alone, and here we are asking them to put the rest of the world before themselves," Blake responded.

"I guess I never really thought about it like that."

"The problem is whatever happens at Haven is going to affect them wether they like it or not. If Adam gets his way and Haven falls, it's just going to make things worse for the faunus, everywhere."

"Adam," Sun stirred his drink, "he's the guy you used to, work, with?" He asked hesitantly.

Blake sighed. "Yes."

"Sorry, forget I brought it up." He put his hands up and moved his tail behind him.

"No it's okay. Have you ever met someone and thought, 'they are the personification of, this word?'" Blake asked.

"Uhh."

"Okay, well I remember getting to know Ruby and thinking, 'this girl is the embodiment of purity.' Eventually I saw Weiss was defiance, and Yang was strength."

"Well, what am I?" Sun asked cheekily.

"Jury's still out on that one, but I'm leaning towards ernest."

Sun threw his tail around his back and drank from his cup with a smile.

"At first I thought Adam was justice, than I thought he was passion. But I eventually saw that he wasn't any of those things. He was spite. Not hatred, not rage, spite."

"Adam won't except equality," Blake continued, "only suffering for what he feels the world did to him. His way of thinking is dangerously contagious. That's what worries me about Ilia. She's not like Adam, not yet at least, but I don't know how long that will last."

"She was your friend," Sun stated.

"She was," Blake responded. "Her chameleon traits meant she could pass as human. She could've lived a normal life if she wanted, but she didn't. I always admired her for that." Blake looked out at the ocean, as if she was looking for her lost friends on the horizon.

"Ilia lost her parents in a mining accident up in Mantle, and she joined the White Fang. Like me, she was more or less trained on the road alongside other faunus. She learned to survive, to defend herself, but as people like Sienna and Adam began to gain a following, she became more dangerous. I guess I did too." She slowly stirred her drink in a shell. "My parents tried to get me to leave with them. I refused, I had Adam and Ilia after all."

"You know we're going to have to face her eventually," Sun said calmly, to which Blake replied with a sigh.

"I know."

"So what are you going to do?" he questioned. She looked up at him.

"I'm going to try to help her the way you helped me."

"What?" He hadn't expected that.

"You showed me that sometimes you have to be there for a friend, even when they don't want you to be. I was drowning in guilt and fear, I tried to push you away but you didn't give up on me, and I'm not going to give up on Ilia." Her voice got a lot more serious than before. "It's about time I save my friends for once." Sun nodded in response.

Mistral

Oscar yelled as he brought a hard strike down to the ground. Work like this was more exhausting than he had originally thought it would be.

"You're really getting better, huh?" He looked up in surprise and saw Ruby at the base of the stairs. "Are you hungry? It's almost dinner time."

"Yeah, that sounds good. I was just about to call it a night anyway," he answered.

"So, you've never fought before?" Ruby tried to start a conversation.

"Just the occasional small grimm. Nothing like this though." He rubbed the back of his neck to get a bit of stiffness out of the joints.

"Wow, you look like a natural." She half-heartedly sauntered forward.

"It's strange." Oscar looked at the Long Memory. "I've only had this cane for a few weeks, but it feels like I've had for a lifetime, longer even." He realized what he'd just said. "I probably sound like a crazy person, don't I?"

"I mean, uh, yeah just a little, but at this pace you'll be combat ready in no time." She smiled as she said it, until she remembered who always used to say it. Oscar knew something had happened to her, just from the sad look in her eyes. He wondered if he should ask her, but decided against it. "Well, I'll see you upstairs." She began to make the journey back up to the second story.

"How do you handle all of this?" He blurted out.

Ruby stopped in her tracks. "What do you mean?" She didn't want to turn around. A single tear escaped her eye and slid down her face. She wiped it away and turned to face Oscar,

"I'm, scared. More scared than I've ever been in my entire life. More than I ever thought was possible." He began to take the Long Memory to the backpack he had originally brought with him. "I always knew I wanted to be more than a farmhand, but this? Who would ask for this?" He placed Ozpin's cane against the weapon rack and knelt down to open the bag.

"We all went to Beacon because we wanted to help people, but you're right. None of us asked for this either." Oscar put the old cane in the backpack. "We just have to press on and-"

"How can you be so confident?" Oscar turned on her, his voice steadily getting louder. "People have tried to kill you, the world's about to go to war all over again. How are you okay with any of this?" He saw that Ruby was backing away from him, almost as if she scared, even though she had no reason to be. Then, there was the look in her eyes from before, and at the point he knew, that he had messed up.

"When Beacon fell, I lost two of my friends, Penny Polendina and Pyrrha Nikos. I didn't know them for very long, but that didn't change the fact that they were two of the most kind-hearted people I've ever met, but that didn't save them." Tears started to roll down her face, and Oscar knew just how much they meant to her.

"Pyrrha thought that if there was even the smallest chance of helping someone, that it was a chance worth taking, and because of that, she died fighting a battle she knew she couldn't win. And Penny, was killed, just to make a statement." Ruby tried to wipe some the tears away, but more kept coming.

"I'm, sorry." Oscar had nothing else he could say. He had never experienced anything close to that before, and he hoped he never would.

"I am scared," Ruby locked eyes with him, "but not just for me. Beacon shows that Salem will kill anybody, wether they stand against her or not, and that, scares me most of all." The look in her eyes changed from one of sadness to a deep fear. "Pyrrha, Penny. I would be lying if I said it didn't hurt, that I didn't think about them everyday since I lost them, that I didn't wish I had spent more time with them. If it had been me instead, I know they would've kept fighting too, no matter how dangerous it was, so that's what I choose to do. To keep moving forward." And with those last words, the final tears fell from Ruby's eyes, and Oscar could see the pain and sorrow and grief she's had to live with for the past several months.

She placed a hand on his shoulder after drying her face on her sleeve. "Come on, if we don't hurry, Nora's going to eat everything. It wouldn't be the first time." She got about halfway up the stairs before she stopped and turned around. "Hey Oscar. This isn't going to be easy, but the fact that you're even trying says a lot about you. You're braver than you think." Those words hit him deeper than he thought they would. He watched her climb the final steps before she disappeared from view.

_She really is remarkable, isn't she? _Ozpin inquired.

"Yeah, she must've been one of the best huntresses at Beacon, huh?" Ozpin gave a little chuckle.

_In some ways, yes. In many others, no. She has her quirks, her faults, just like everyone else, but she also possesses something unquantifiable. A spark, that can inspire others even in the darkest of times._

"This must be really hard on her too."

_It most assuredly is._

Author's note: And that's going to do it for this chapter. Sorry it took me so long to get it out, this chapter was actually a way bigger pain in the ass than I thought it would be. I've been typing so fast for the past three hours that my shoulders are now starting to hurt. On another note, I'm not sure if I spelled Pyrrha's name right. If I did, tell me and if I didn't, tell me. Give me any corrections for the story, but if you have ideas, message me about them, don't leave a review with your idea. I want to make sure that if any body does give me an idea that people won't mistake it for a story spoiler or something like that. Also, I'm going to be starting a new poll after I post this chapter about my Rose Wolf story that I adopted from Gizmo Gear. Look at the top of my profile for it and leave a review if you feel like it. Until than, I'm out and I'll see you all(figuratively speaking)in the next chapter where we will be going into team VLCRY's past with Cinder and how she came to be a part of their team. Goodbye for now. End author's note.


	17. The Depths of History

Darkness. That's all that surrounded a lone figure floating in the emptiness. A cold black that seeped into the body and through the bloodstream. He couldn't see anything. For all he knew, this was death. His hands splayed out around him like wings from an eagle, his legs flowing through the liquid like the fins of a fish. He didn't know what was going on. He had no idea what happened or where he was.

He opened his eyes and saw a tiny blue spark fly past his face. He watched as it moved around him in circles. Through his clouded and blurry vision, he caught sight of a red light far off in the distance.

"Where am I?" The words barely came out before they fizzled in the blackness. The blue light came by him again, drawing his attention from the red light.

_You are at the very center of the magical energy of this world,_ a voice whispered into his ears. _Strange how you came here and didn't die. This much exposure to the primal force of Remnant should've killed you a long time ago. How did you survive?_

"Probably my semblance. It's saved my life countless times before. As well as the lives of many others."

_What is your semblance? I've never met or heard of anyone with an aura as strong as yours, and yet, your supply is far less than that of the people you grew up with._

"My semblance is called World Memory, and like all of the Trandifir bloodline, it has two aspects to it. I can read the world around me through the energy that it gives off, and in some circumstances, I can manipulate it. It is very powerful, but in some cases, very dangerous."

_I would know all about the secondary aspect of Silver Semblances. After all, those weapons you carry on your back almost all of the time, I made those. _A thin smile stretched across his face.

"I thought that's who you were, Adira Trandifir."

_You know who I am. I noticed you digging through history when you were showing that girl the story of the night when **She** attacked._

"So, that was her doing. I think I may have found a way to finally kill her forever. Salem," his voice grew dangerously deep, "you will pay for what you have done to my kind. Millions of people in a single night were slaughtered because you couldn't have them getting in your way of bringing the gods back."

_What are planning to do?_

"Right now I can't do anything, but first I'll have to free Tempest's soul from Salem's control. I will need your help. When I fought him this last time, I was using his own power to fuel my Berserker Form. If I am to beat him for good, I will need power. Can you give it to me?"

_I will, but only if you swear to free the rest of the Lusus Naturae when you finish._

"I can't promise anything, but I will do what I can. Even if I have to kill them all, they will walk free and Trandifir will live again. Here's what I'm planning."

* * *

"Vara Rose, Laura Star, Roy Winchester and Yael Arc. You gathered the white bishop pieces and will come together to form Team VLRY(valkyrie), lead by Vara Rose." The teenager smiled at his accomplishment.

"Cinder Fall, Rust Azure, Matilda Brown and Nello Celadon. You gathered the black bishop pieces and will come together to form team CRMN(crimson), lead by Cinder Fall." The young woman didn't really think much of it, but appreciated the position all the same. The two new teams had worked rather well during initiation that morning. Vara was eccentric and strange at times but he certainly knew his way around a battlefield. It was almost as if he switched personalities when he got in a fight.

Vara threw his arm over Cinder's shoulders in a friendly manner. "Nice job Cindy, becoming the leader of your own team. You did pretty well earlier too. I can't believe you took down that Goliath all by yourself."

"Me?" She shoved him off of her. "You're the one who killed an entire army of beowolves before we could do anything to help. How do you explain that, huh?" He whistled as if he didn't really care.

"I can't tell you that, but on another note, if you want to spar anytime, I'm free, and I bet I could take on your entire team and win," he taunted her. She kicked him in response. He jerked back as her foot connected and held his shin in mock pain.

"Ow, why did you do that? That wasn't very nice of you Cindy," he mocked further.

"First of all, if you want to fight, you're going to have to bring your whole team if you want to have a chance at beating us. Second," she kicked his other leg causing him to fall in the floor, "stop calling me Cindy." She held out her hand and helped him up. They than started laughing.

"Well, see you tomorrow." The two parted ways for the time being.

The Next Day

Sparring Class

"The first match of the day will be randomly selected," the instructor stated. They pressed a button on their scroll and two screens above the arena started the process of choosing the students. "Looks like it's Cinder Fall vs," the second screen landed on the next person, "Vara Rose. Please step into the ring." The two students did as they were asked and faced each other.

Cinder pulled two blades from her waist and took a combat stance. Vara pulled the two daggers from his thighs and switched them to an under-handed grip and positioned his hands for a punch.

"You may begin when ready." Vara nearly vanished from sight as he flew through the air and clashed blades with his opponent. Cinder barely managed to block the strike by crossing her blades over each other, binding their blades with the friction of the hit. She ducked out of the bind and dove in between his legs, him being so freakishly tall made it easy. (At this point, Vara is about 6'6") When she came out, she ran a little ways away, only for Vara to kick her legs out from underneath her. She fell to the ground and rolled over to hit him.

Cinder struck his leg and he backed off, only for a second. When she stood up she met his daggers against her swords again and was nearly pushed into the ground. She looked at his face and saw his eyes were cold and uncaring, very different from when she had seen them before. Cinder activated her semblance and pulled blistering shards of the ground up and threw them at Vara. He turned around and extended his shield from his arm, blocking the barrage but opening him up for an attack from behind.

Cinder took the opportunity and swung at his shoulder with one blade. He moved an empty hand from his waistline and took hold of the hilt of one of his two swords on his back. He pulled it partially out and blocked the swing. He turned to face her and that cold look startled her. She had seen it during initiation just yesterday and it still didn't sit right. Vara turned around and pulled the longsword from his back.

She backed up and took a quick glance at the aura meters above their heads. Vara's aura was slowly draining for some reason, but why? She had looked away for too long and had given him an opening to strike. He swung the blade at her face and she missed the block. She felt the metal hit a little to hard and could feel her aura weaken a considerable amount. Cinder glanced at her scroll on her arm and saw she was in the yellow. Her opponent stalked toward her menacingly and raised his sword again. He pulled the shield back into it's storage form and gripped the hilt with both hands.

_A swing from above_, Cinder thought. He brought the sword down and she brought her's up to block it, only for him to redirect his sword around her guard and nail her in the side. _A feint? _She was knocked to the ground and Vara was bout to go in for another strike when the two heard a beeping sound and the instructor stopped the fight.

"As you can see students, Miss Fall's aura is now in the red and in a tournament, this is when the judge would then call the match. Mister Rose wins the battle." Vara reached his hand down to help Cinder from the ground after re-sheathing his sword, his eyes looking normal again. She took his hand and stood.

"That hurt you know," she complained.

"Hey, I was just trying to end the fight as quickly as possible so neither of us would fall into the red at the same time," he retorted.

"Speaking of which, why was your aura constantly depleting throughout the whole thing?"

"That was my semblance at work. What it is I can't tell you yet, but maybe you'll find out someday." He smiled mockingly at her and she punched him in the lower ribs. He held his chest in fake hurt.

"That's wasn't very nice Cindy," he said sarcastically.

"It wasn't supposed to be," she laughed, "and don't call me Cindy."

"Oh come on, you know you like it." They walked back to their seats to watch the next match.

* * *

Three Years Later

Cinder stepped out of the airship and lept into the arms of her very best friend. Vara caught her and lifted her onto his shoulder.

"So how did it go Cindy?" He asked her as he walked toward the school.

"It went well, and don't call me Cindy." She never meant it when she said it, and Vara would always know. He would never tell her how other than, 'I just know.' It was infuriating when he would say that, but she didn't really mind it anymore. "I got some more fire rounds for that rifle of yours. Where do you stash that thing anyway?"

"Who knows, who knows?" He replied with a laugh. "I keep it in a holster on the inside of my coat."

"Don't you have everything you own hidden in your coat somewhere?"

"Nah, not everything. I don't have my little sister in here all the time. When I'm here at least." He laughed again.

"You're being a little extra annoying today aren't you?" She asked him. She didn't really mind if he was, she just wanted to know if it was purposeful or not.

"Yeah I am. Summer sent me something that one of her new friends said. I thought it was hilarious and now I can't help myself." He smiled and looked up at her.

"What did they say?" She inquired.

"Oh nothing." He dropped her from his shoulder and they kept walking. "Just that I am the worst big brother ever. I disagree with that strongly." He added a dramatic flare to his voice with that last part. "And besides, Summer says otherwise."

"Were you just saying that to get to me?"

"Ugh, I'm hurt. How dare you say that I'm trying to make you jealous of my little sister." His tone was thick with sass.

"Well you may be the best big brother in the world, but you could use some work on being a boyfriend," she replied cheekily. Cinder walked up in front of him and stood on her toes. That was the only way she could reach his face, so he stooped down just a little and met her for the kiss.

* * *

About a month later, team CRMN was called off on a mission in northern Vytal to find a pocket of grimm that was growing in strength so the army could go in and destroy it. Vara volunteered to go with them as backup but was denied because there would 'be to many people for a stealth mission.' Vara saw that it was a viable argument and didn't say anything more.

Team CRMN came to their destination and went to work. They found the pocket of grimm, but they had also been spotted. The grimm rushed them and they got trampled. At least that's what they thought at the time. They had no idea that Vara had followed them anyway, and he got the four of them out of the way of the stampede.

"Get back to the ship, I can handle them," he told them.

"But Vara," Cinder started.

"No buts Cinder. Get out of here, now!" He drew the two swords from his back and attached the pommels together, creating a double-ended longsword. He spun it in his hands and readied for the oncoming horde.

"You didn't call me Cindy." She was dumbstruck. In all the years they had known each other, he had never called her anything but Cindy, so why would he stop now?

"Cinder," Rust Azure grabbed her by the arm, "we have to go. If Vara says he can handle the grimm, I'm inclined to believe him. He's always been trustworthy about everything. But we have to go now. Come on!" The four of them ran and Cinder turned to face Vara as he looked at her. He smiled and nodded as his eyes turned steely cold. He turned and started spinning his blades. That was the last time she ever thought she was going to see him.

The next thing she knew she was laying on the ground with no one around her. Her vision was blurry and full of black spots. She looked in front of her and sat up. What she saw was a figure dressed in black with white hair and red vein-like tendrils coming from her chest and creeping up her face.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Salem, and who are you?"

"My name is Cinder Fall. Where are my team-mates?"

"That other friend of your's, Vara Rose, has killed them." Cinder's eyes widened in disbelief.

"No. That can't be true. What happened?"

"Vara is able to draw the skill of others into his body to make himself unbeatable in combat. It is what his semblance does, but he draws it from whoever or whatever is closest. When he started fighting, he began to draw it from the grimm, and he went berserk. In his frenzy, he not only killed the grimm but also your friends. Look behind you and you can see their bodies as proof."

Cinder turned and looked behind her as she was told, and low and behold, the bodies of her team lay behind her, their throats ripped out and disemboweled. She almost threw up from the sight.

"It can't be true. It can't."

"I'm afraid it is, but if you help me, I will help you get revenge against him if that is what you desire." Her voice was so soothing and almost hypnotic. Cinder's head swayed back and forth a little as she tried to decide.

"There is one more thing you should know. The headmaster of Beacon sent Vara to aid you. If you help me, I can bring your friends back to life, and they can be with you forever."

"What will happen if I do decide to help you?"

"You will have to go back to Beacon, and be my eyes and ears there. Here is a necklace that will allow me to see whatever you do." Salem produced a necklace with a black crystal in the palm of her hand. She knelt down and and offered it to Cinder. "This will also give you all the power you could dream of. You could use it to destroy those who wronged you."

"What do you want me to do?"

"First and foremost, Vara will be to difficult to deal with by yourself, so I will provide you with all the necessary reinforcements to bring him to me, but before you can do that, kill his little sister, Summer Rose." Cinder's eyes widened in horror.

"But, no. She's just a sweet innocent little girl. I can't kill her."

"If you want to get revenge against Vara for what he did to you, than you will have to put him through a similar agony that you will be going through soon. Though you don't have to do it until she's much older, when she has innocent blood on her hands too." Cinder thought for half a second and made a decision.

"I'll do it, for my friends. I'll do whatever it takes to bring them back."

"Good." Salem stood as Cinder took the necklace.

* * *

Cinder's team had been wiped out and she lay in the infirmary. The headmaster and the other teachers were talking to her about what she would like to do now.

"We'll take her." Everybody looked to the new voice. It was Vara and his team.

"We talked it over, and if it's alright with Cinder, we'll take her as a permanent member of our team. We could add her first initial, C, to the middle of VLRY. The name would stay the same but with an extra letter." Tears nearly came from Cinder's eyes as he said that, but than remembered what Salem had told her.

"I'd like that."

And you already know the rest.

Author's note: This chapter is meant to be the one year marker for this story. I wrote it over the course of two consecutive days for that purpose alone. It is a bit longer than what I normally do but I promised you guys a few chapters ago that I would give you the backstory with Cinder and team VLRY. I think I did that fairly well, but let me know what you think of what Vara and Cinder's relationship was like when they were still at Beacon. I thought it would help explain why Vara has such a hatred towards her. If you like it, great. If you don't, well to bad I'm keeping it that way no matter what anybody says. Leave a review if you feel like it and in case you couldn't figure out who the voice talking to Vara in the beginning was, well, do you remember what he showed Ruby several chapters ago? The woman with the veil fighting the horde of grimm in the winter at night? Well, the voice was what was left of her soul. Her spirit if you will. One more thing before I finish the chapter off, when Vara gets out of the place the chapter started out in, let's just say he's going to be a little less than alright. That's all for now so, goodbye. End author's note.


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